Two of the 37 inmates on the federal death row who were sentenced to life in prison without parole last month by President Biden are revoking parole.
Shannon Agofsky, 53, and Len Davis, 60, are both in the US prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, they refuse to sign papers accepting the president's act of mercy because of the legal procedures they have if they want to die, according to court documents.
The two filed emergency appeals in federal court on Dec. 30 seeking an injunction to block the commutation of their death sentences, saying that accepting the commutations would remove the heightened scrutiny that death penalty appeals receive.
Critical review is a legal process in which courts examine cases such as death penalty appeals along the lines of error because these cases are a matter of life or death.
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Two of the 37 death row inmates sentenced to life in prison without parole by President Biden are rejecting clemency. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
“To reduce his sentence now, while the defendant is still in court, is to deprive him of the protection of his scrutiny,” Agofsky's letter continued. “This is an unnecessary burden, and it leaves the accused in a position of injustice, which could end his appeals process.”
Davis, a former New Orleans police officer, “has always maintained that the death penalty will draw attention to the excessive misconduct” of the Justice Department, he wrote in his filing.
But, as Davis noted, the case law on the matter is “really bitter” and there is no guarantee that the two inmates will have their death sentences commuted.
It is worth noting that the Supreme Court ruled in 1927 that the president could grant relief and pardon without the prisoner's consent. Both prisoners wrote in their books that they never asked for a change.
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A jury convicted Agofsky of the 1989 murder of Dan Short, a former Oklahoma bank president. His body was found in a lake after prosecutors say Agofsky and his brother, Joseph Agofsky, kidnapped and killed Short before stealing $71,000 from the bank.
Joseph Agofsky was found not guilty of murder, but was sentenced to life in prison for the crime. He died in prison in 2013.
Shannon Agofsky was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder and robbery. He was later convicted in 2001 of murdering his fellow inmate, Luther Plant, while incarcerated in a Texas prison. A judge recommended the death penalty in that case in 2004.
A Texas judge has recommended that Shannon Agofsky be sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering a fellow inmate while in custody. (AP)
Agofsky said in a statement last week that he disputes how he was charged with manslaughter in Plant's death and that he wants to “prove his innocence in the first case in which he was arrested.”
His wife, Laura, who he married in 2019 by phone, told NBC News that his lawyers urged him to seek a presidential replacement, but he declined because he had been given legal counsel important to his pleas as an inmate. She said her husband still has lawyers helping him in his case.
She told this newspaper that her husband's sentence being amended only “is not a success for him” because he believes that there is evidence that can prove his innocence.
“He doesn't want to die in prison as a cold-blooded killer,” he said.
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Davis was found guilty in connection with the 1994 murder of Kim Groves, who had filed a lawsuit against him as a police officer for allegedly assaulting a teenager in his neighborhood. Prosecutors charged Davis with violating Groves' civil rights after accusing him of hiring a drug dealer to kill him.
An appeals court overturned Davis' original conviction, but it was reinstated in 2005.
Davis has “maintained his innocence and has argued that a federal court does not have jurisdiction to try him on civil rights charges,” his letter read.
Only three of the 40 men on the government's death row still face execution following President Biden's change last month. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
Both Davis and Agofsky urged the judge to appoint an attorney in their motions to injunctive relief.
The Justice Department announced a moratorium on executions during the Biden administration, but President-elect Trump has vowed to increase executions when he returns to the White House later this month.
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“I am more convinced than ever that we must end the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” Biden said in a statement last month. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and allow the new administration to continue the killings I have put in place.”
The three state inmates who were not granted clemency were Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of the 2013 Boston marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, convicted in the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina; and Robert Bowers, who was convicted of the 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh Synagogue.
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