Two federal death row inmates have declined to proceed with the opportunity for their sentences to be commuted by President Joe Biden.
Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis are part of a group of 37 prisoners whose death sentences were commuted by the President just before the holiday season. Biden announced that these sentences would be altered to life imprisonment without parole.
This decision aligns with Biden’s stance that the U.S. should ‘stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder’.
Despite the commutation order, inmates must agree to it by signing paperwork—a step Agofsky and Davis are refusing to take.
Agofsky was initially jailed for the 1989 murder of bank president Dan Short. In 2001, he was convicted for killing a fellow inmate while in prison, resulting in a jury’s recommendation for a death sentence.
Davis, a former officer with the New Orleans police, was sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of Kim Groves. Groves had filed a complaint against Davis for allegedly beating a teenager in her area.
Prosecutors alleged Davis had a drug dealer carry out Groves’ murder, resulting in charges for violating her civil rights.
Both prisoners, now held at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, have submitted emergency motions for an injunction to halt Biden’s commutations, arguing it might legally disadvantage them.
Their refusal stems from the careful review typically applied to death penalties versus life sentences. Both inmates are seeking to appeal their cases, asserting their innocence.
By staying on death row, Agofsky and Davis hope their cases will be subject to heightened scrutiny, a legal process ensuring thorough examination for errors before execution.
Agofsky’s motion states: “To commute his sentence now, while the defendant has active litigation in court, is to strip him of the protection of heightened scrutiny. This constitutes an undue burden, and leaves the defendant in a position of fundamental unfairness, which would decimate his pending appellate procedures.”
“The defendant never requested commutation. The defendant never filed for commutation,” the motion adds. “The defendant does not want commutation, and refused to sign the papers offered with the commutation.”
Davis claims that maintaining a death sentence would highlight the alleged misconduct during his trial.
Agofsky, now 53, disputes both his original murder charge and the 2001 conviction, aiming to prove his innocence in the initial case.
Davis’ motion asserts his continual claim of innocence and argues that the federal court lacked jurisdiction in his civil rights case.
Although commutations require paperwork, Dan Kobil, a constitutional law professor at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, informed NBC News that reversing a death sentence is difficult.
In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled that ‘the convict’s consent is not required’ for presidential reprieves and pardons.
In their efforts to retain their death sentences, Davis and Agofsky have requested a judge to appoint a co-counsel.