Two federal death row inmates have publicly rejected President Joe Biden’s clemency offer, which was part of a recent sweeping effort to commute the death row sentences of 37 individuals.
Shannon Agofsky, 53, and Len Davis, 60, both of whom are housed at the Terre Haute, Indiana, penitentiary, are fighting against the commutation of their sentences. They cite the potential loss of “legal protections” and the ongoing pursuit to prove their innocence.
Agofsky and Davis, two of the 37 inmates whose death sentences were commuted to life without the possibility of parole last month, filed emergency motions in federal court on December 30. Their filings argue that accepting clemency would strip them of critical legal rights, particularly the “heightened scrutiny” or focus that death penalty cases receive during their appeals, per Fox News.
Agofsky was convicted in 1989 for the murder of Dan Short, the president of an Oklahoma bank, according to CaseLaw, per Fox. Short’s body was discovered in a lake after Agofsky and his brother were accused of kidnapping and killing him while robbing the bank of $71,000. Although his brother was found not guilty of murder, he was sentenced to life in prison for the robbery, where he subsequently died in 2013.
Shannon Agofsky was sentenced to life in prison for the murder and robbery of Short. In 2004, he received a death sentence following his conviction for the 2001 stomping death of a fellow prisoner named Luther Plant.
Despite Agofsky’s criminal conviction, he has consistently disputed the circumstances surrounding the killing of Plant and maintains that there is evidence that could prove his innocence in both the original murder case and the murder case of Plant.
Len Davis, a former New Orleans police officer convicted in 1994 for the murder of Kim Groves, a woman who had filed a civil rights complaint against him, also insists on his innocence. Davis was accused of orchestrating the murder of Groves after she filed a complaint against him for allegedly beating a teenager in her neighborhood, reported Fox.
Although a federal appeals court initially overturned Davis’ death sentence, it was reinstated in 2005. Throughout the legal process, Davis has argued that federal courts had no jurisdiction to try him for civil rights violations related to Groves’ death. He continues to maintain that he was wrongfully convicted, also claiming that the evidence used at trial was insufficient for his conviction.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1927 that the President has the authority to grant pardons and reprieves without the consent of the convicted person, raising questions about whether the inmates can even legally prevent the commutation of their sentences.
However, both Agofsky and Davis have argued that they were never asked whether they would accept clemency, nor did they request clemency.
Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department imposed a moratorium on federal executions, halting all planned executions, according to Fox 4.
The future of death penalty cases remains uncertain, especially with President Donald Trump’s return to office later this month. Trump has previously expressed his intention to “expand” federal executions, per NBC News, which could potentially affect ongoing death row cases like those of Agofsky and Davis.