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2 murderers spared from execution by Biden’s controversial clemency ask court to let them stay on death row, here's why
Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis refused to sign paperwork that would reduce their sentences to life without parole.
Two convicted murderers who were spared from execution by Joe Biden’s controversial clemency last month have told a federal court they want to remain on death row instead. Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis are both incarcerated at the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Both Agofsky and Davis have refused to sign paperwork that would reduce their sentences to life without parole. In fact, they filed emergency motions in the state’s southern district federal court last week to prevent president Biden’s death-row reprieve from taking effect.
Why did Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis refuse to sign paperwork?
Agofsky and Davis both maintain their innocence. They have refused to sign paperwork as they believe Biden’s commutation puts them at a legal disadvantage as they appeal their cases, NBC News reported.
“To commute his sentence now, while the defendant has active litigation in court, is to strip him of the protection of heightened scrutiny,” Agofsky’s filing stated, per the outlet. “This constitutes an undue burden, and leaves the defendant in a position of fundamental unfairness, which would decimate his pending appellate procedures.”
Davis, on the other hand, described his current situation as a “ fast-moving constitutional conundrum,” and also stated that “having a death sentence would draw attention to the overwhelming misconduct” he alleges against the Justice Department.
Compared to other cases, death penalty appeals cases are more closely examined for errors under the heightened scrutiny doctrine. If the two inmates no longer face capital punishment, they will both lose the benefit. However, in a 1927 case, the Supreme Court ruled that a “convict’s consent is not required” for the president “to grant reprieves and pardons.”
Agofsky was sentenced to death in 2004 for the murder of a fellow Texas prison inmate three years prior. He had already been serving a life sentence on murder and robbery charges for the 1989 abduction and killing of a bank president. “The defendant never requested commutation,” his filing said. “The defendant never filed for commutation. The defendant does not want commutation, and refused to sign the papers offered with the commutation.”
Agofsky, 53, maintains his innocence in the bank president murder case, and disputes the way he was charged in the prison killing case. “He doesn’t want to die in prison being labeled a cold-blooded killer,” his wife, Laura Agofsky, told NBC News.
Davis is a former New Orleans, Louisiana, police officer who was convicted of hiring a hitman to kill Kim Groves in 1994 after she allegedly filed a complaint against him. The filing stated that 60-year-old Davis “has always maintained his innocence.” The filing also alleged that the federal court that convicted Davis had no jurisdiction in the case.
Biden recently granted clemency to 37 federal death row inmates, and Agofsky and Davis were among them. Those granted clemency included several child killers and mass murderers.
