Two Death Row Inmates Want to Reject Joe Biden's Clemency—Here's Why

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Two inmates on federal death row whose death sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden are asking a judge to block the clemency action.

Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis said in separate handwritten emergency petitions filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on December 30 that they had refused to sign the paperwork that was offered with the commutations.

The men, who are inmates at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, said they had not requested a commutation and that accepting one could hinder their appeals, according to court documents reviewed by Newsweek. The news of their requests to block their commutations was first reported by NBC News, and their attorneys declined to comment on the filings.

Why It Matters

Agofsky, 53, and Davis, 60, are among the 37 inmates on federal death row whose death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole by Biden on December 23.

It came a month before President-elect Donald Trump returns to office after pledging to resume federal executions. He oversaw a run of 13 executions in the final six months of his first term.

In issuing the commutations, Biden said: "In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted."

The three men left on federal death row could face execution once their appeals and legal challenges are resolved.

Experts say Agofsky and Davis' objections may not be able to stop their commutations. A 1927 U.S. Supreme Court ruling says a president "may commute a sentence of death to life imprisonment without the convict's consent."

What to Know

Agofsky was sentenced to death in 2004 for the 2001 killing of another inmate while he was serving a life sentence in a Texas prison.

"To commute his sentence now, while the defendant has active litigation in court, is to strip him of the protection of heightened scrutiny," Agofsky wrote in his filing.

"This constitutes an undue burden, and leaves the defendant in a position of fundamental unfairness, which would decimate his pending appellate procedures."

Davis, a former New Orleans police officer, was sentenced to death in 2006 for ordering the 1994 murder of a woman who had filed a brutality complaint against him.

He wrote in his filing that "he did not request any commotion nor does he accept any commutation."

Davis added that he has "always maintained that having a death sentence would draw attention to the overwhelming misconduct" he believes the Department of Justice committed in his case.

He also said he thanks the court for its "prompt attention to this fast-moving constitutional conundrum. The case law on this issue is quite murky."

What People Are Saying

Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told Newsweek that their "objections will have no effect on the decision to commute their sentences. The president's power to commute their death sentences is grounded in his constitutional authority and is absolute."

She said: "The overwhelming number of federal prisoners who benefited from this decision are greatly relieved that they have been removed from immediate danger of being executed."

Maher also said that she did not agree that the commutations would harm their appeals.

"Death penalty cases should receive heightened judicial scrutiny because of the life and death consequences of the sentence, but all legal claims succeed or fail on the merits," she said. "A death sentence does not increase the likelihood of success of any legal claim—it may actually decrease the chances, because of the time constraints and intense pressures of litigating while under an execution date."

Agofsky's wife, Laura Agofsky, told NBC News that her husband refused to request a commutation because of concerns he would lose legal counsel provided to him if he is no longer on death row.

"He doesn't want to die in prison being labeled a cold-blooded killer," she said.