Republican senators Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt challenged former Biden pardon attorney Elizabeth Oyer over recommendations that President Biden consider commuting the sentences of all 40 federal death-row prisoners, including Dylann Roof. The exchange at a hearing involving Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche focused on whether clemency proposals gave insufficient weight to victims and the severity of mass murders.

Oyer was questioned over a memo that included Roof, who killed nine Black worshippers at a Charleston church in 2015. Republicans accused her of prioritising convicted killers over victims, while the broader dispute reflects continuing political divisions over capital punishment and presidential clemency.