Two federal prisoners on death row mount an unexpected challenge to President Joe Biden's clemency decision.
According to The Guardian, Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis have filed emergency motions seeking to block the commutation of their death sentences to life imprisonment without parole, arguing the action would hinder their ongoing legal appeals.
The inmates, both housed at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, were among 37 federal prisoners whose death sentences were commuted by President Biden last month. Their resistance stems from concerns about losing legal protections and counsel currently available to death row inmates, potentially compromising their chances of proving their innocence through pending appeals.
Agofsky's court filing explicitly addresses the potential disadvantages of accepting the commutation. His legal team argues that the timing of the commutation could severely impact his current litigation efforts.
According to Agofsky's emergency motion:
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.
The concerns extend beyond mere legal technicalities. Agofsky's wife has confirmed that the primary worry centers on losing access to legal representation currently provided to death row inmates, a crucial resource for pursuing their appeals.
Agofsky's case involves multiple serious convictions. His initial life sentence came in 1989 for the robbery and murder of Oklahoma bank president Dan Short. While serving this sentence in Texas, he received a death sentence for the 2001 killing of a fellow prisoner.
Davis's case presents equally serious charges. As a former New Orleans police officer, he was convicted for orchestrating the 1994 murder of Kim Groves, who had filed a complaint against him for allegedly assaulting a teenager in her neighborhood.
The presidential commutation represents a significant shift in federal death penalty policy. Biden's action marks the largest number of death sentence commutations by any modern American president, though it excluded three inmates convicted of terrorism or hate-motivated mass murders.
The challenge to Biden's commutations opens up unprecedented legal questions about the intersection of presidential clemency powers and defendants' rights to pursue appeals. Both inmates remain in federal custody while their emergency motions are considered.
Three federal death row inmates were notably excluded from Biden's clemency action: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in the Boston Marathon bombing; Dylann Roof, responsible for the Charleston church massacre; and Robert Bowers, convicted of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
The resolution of these cases could establish important precedents regarding the scope and timing of presidential commutations in relation to ongoing appeals processes.
Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis remain at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, as they pursue their legal strategy to reject President Biden's commutation of their death sentences to life imprisonment without parole. Their rejection stems from concerns about losing crucial legal protections and representation currently available to death row inmates. The outcome of their emergency motions could significantly impact future presidential clemency actions and death row inmates' rights to pursue appeals while under sentence of death.
