Federal judge denies attempt to block commuted death row inmates' transfer to 'Supermax' prison

A federal judge has denied a legal attempt, for now, to prevent the U.S. government from transferring former death row inmates to the "Supermax" in Colorado.

A federal judge has denied a legal attempt, for now, to prevent the U.S. government from transferring death row inmates whose sentences were commuted by then-President Joe Biden to the "Supermax" in Colorado, the highest-security federal prison in the country.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington, D.C., ruled Tuesday against issuing a preliminary injunction requested in a lawsuit brought by 21 of the 37 former death row inmates, all of whom saw their sentences changed to life without parole in December.

"The Court cannot grant that relief — at least not now," Kelly wrote in his opinion, saying that the plaintiffs must first exhaust their administrative appeals within the federal Bureau of Prison's transfer process.

The decision comes as the BOP has said it would not transfer any of the plaintiffs to the "Supermax," also known as the Administrative Maximum Facility, or ADX, until at least the end of May.

"The Bureau of Prisons offers an administrative process for challenging final designations to ADX, and Plaintiffs have not completed — or, to the Court's knowledge, even started — that process," Kelly wrote. "Because the Court lacks discretion to append exceptions to Congress's exhaustion requirement, it will deny Plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction."