Last month, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life in prison without parole, two of whom declined clemency.
Shannon Agofsky, 53, and Len Davis, 60, are both incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. They refused to sign documents accepting presidential clemency actions because of the legal access afforded by death row, court documents show.
The two filed an emergency motion in federal court on December 30, requesting an injunction to prevent the death sentence from being revised, saying that accepting a reduced sentence would eliminate the strict scrutiny that death penalty appeals are subject to.
Enhanced review is a legal process in which courts look more closely at cases such as death penalty appeals for errors because of the life-and-death stakes in these cases.
Biden commutes sentences of 37 federal death row inmates in final month of presidency
President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life in prison without the possibility of parole, two of whom declined clemency. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Seneta)
“To reduce the defendant’s sentence now while he is actively litigating in court would be to deprive him of the protection of rigorous scrutiny,” Agovsky wrote in the filing. “This constitutes an undue burden and places the defendant in a fundamental An unfair position that will undermine his pending appeals process.”
Davis, a former New Orleans police officer, wrote in the filing that he “has always maintained that imposing the death penalty would draw attention to the overwhelming majority of the Department of Justice’s misconduct.”
But, as Davis noted, the case law on the issue is “pretty vague” and there’s no guarantee the two inmates will be able to have their death sentences reinstated.
Notably, the Supreme Court ruled in 1927 that the president could grant probation and pardons without the convict’s consent. Two inmates wrote in the files that they never asked for a reduced sentence.
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A jury convicted Agofsky of the 1989 murder of Oklahoma bank president Dan Short. Prosecutors said Agovsky and his brother, Joseph Agovsky, kidnapped and killed Short, then stole $71,000 from the bank before his body was found in the lake.
Joseph Agovsky was found not guilty of murder but sentenced to life in prison for robbery. He died in prison in 2013.
Shannon Agofsky was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder and robbery. In 2001, while incarcerated in a Texas prison, he was convicted of stomping to death fellow inmate Luther Plant. In 2004, a jury recommended the death penalty in the case.
A Texas jury has recommended the death penalty for Shannon Agofsky, who was convicted of killing a fellow inmate while incarcerated. (Associated Press)
Agofsky said in documents filed last week that he is contesting how he was charged with murder in Plant’s death and that he is also seeking to “prove his case in the original case in which he was imprisoned.” clean”.
His wife, Laura, who married him by phone in 2019, told NBC News that his attorneys encouraged him to seek a presidential commutation, but he declined because the legal counsel he obtained was critical to his appeal as a death row inmate. important. She said her husband still has lawyers helping him with his cases.
She told the outlet that her husband’s mere reduction in sentence was “not a victory for him” because she believed there was evidence to prove his innocence.
“He didn’t want to die in prison and be labeled a cold-blooded killer,” she said.
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Davis was convicted of the 1994 murder of Kim Groves, a police officer who had sued Davis for beating a nearby teenager. Prosecutors charged Davis with violating her civil rights after accusing her of hiring a drug dealer to kill Groves.
A federal appeals court vacated Davis’ initial death sentence, but reinstated it in 2005.
Davis “has maintained his innocence and argued that federal courts lack jurisdiction to try him for civil rights crimes,” his filing reads.
Only three of 40 men on federal death row still face execution after President Biden commuted their sentences last month. (AP Photo/Sue Ogroki, File)
Both Davis and Agofsky urged the judge to appoint a co-counsel when seeking a commutation injunction.
The Justice Department has placed a moratorium on executions during the Biden administration, but President-elect Trump has vowed to expand federal executions when he returns to the White House later this month.
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“I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” Biden said in a statement last month. “I cannot in good conscience stand by and let the new administration resume the executions I stopped.” “
The three federal death row inmates who have not been granted clemency are Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, the 2017 Charleston, South Carolina, church mass shooting Found guilty in incident; Robert Bowers sentenced for 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting.
