January 8th 2025.
Two of the 37 death row inmates who were granted clemency by President Joe Biden have made a surprising decision to reject their commutations. Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, both incarcerated in Terre Haute, Indiana, were among the federal prisoners whose death sentences were commuted to life in prison without parole by Biden last month. However, the gesture was not appreciated by Agofsky and Davis, who believe that it may harm their ongoing appeal cases. On December 30, they filed emergency motions in court to block their commutations, arguing that it would put them at a disadvantage.
According to NBC News, Agofsky's filing stated, "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." Similarly, Davis wrote in his filing that having a death sentence would bring attention to the misconduct in his case. He also thanked the court for promptly addressing this "fast-moving constitutional conundrum."
Agofsky and Davis have both declined to sign the paperwork for their commutations. However, a 1927 Supreme Court ruling states that an inmate's consent is not required for their death sentence to be commuted, making it an uphill battle for the two inmates to block Biden's order. Although most of the death row inmates were grateful for Biden's clemency, the Death Penalty Information Center's executive director Robin Maher told NBC News that some were not pleased with the decision.
Agofsky was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a bank president in 1989. Prosecutors say that he and his brother kidnapped and killed the victim, stealing $71,000 from his bank account. The victim's body was found in an Oklahoma lake. Agofsky was initially sentenced to life in prison for murder and robbery charges, but in 2004, he was given a death sentence for stomping a fellow inmate to death.
Len Davis, a former police officer in New Orleans, was convicted of murdering a woman who had filed a brutality complaint against him in 1994. Prosecutors say that Davis hired a drug dealer to kill the woman, who had accused him of brutally beating a teenager in her neighborhood. Davis was charged with violating her civil rights. Although his death sentence was overturned by a federal appeals court, it was reinstated in 2005.
Biden had halted some executions during his term, and his commutations were intended to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from resuming them. "In good conscience," stated Biden, "I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted."
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