Two prisoners whose death penalty sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden last month are refusing to sign the paperwork to accept his clemency, NBC News reported.
Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis were two of the 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were spared by the president, converted to life in prison without parole.
On Dec. 30, Agofsky and Davis, who are housed at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, filed emergency motions in federal court, seeking an injunction to block their commutations, NBC News reported.
Agofsky and Davis maintain their innocence and believe accepting their sentences commuted would put them at a legal disadvantage, according to NBC News.
Davis wrote in his filing that he "has always maintained that having a death sentence would draw attention to the overwhelming misconduct" against the Justice Department, NBC News said.
The men face an uphill legal battle. A 1927 U.S. Supreme Court ruling established the president with the power to grant reprieves and pardons, and "the convict's consent is not required."
Agofsky was originally convicted of murdering a bank president in 1989, and then stealing $71,000 from the bank. In 2001, while in a Texas prison, Agofsky was convicted of stomping another inmate to death, receiving a death sentence in 2004.
Davis was a former New Orleans police officer who was convicted in the 1994 murder of a woman who filed a complaint against him for beating a teenager. Prosecutors alleged Davis hired a drug dealer to kill Groves and charged the officer with violating Groves' civil rights, NBC News said. Davis' original death sentence was thrown out by a federal appeals court but reinstated in 2005, according to NBC News said.
Davis and Agofsky are asking a judge to appoint a co-counsel in their requests for an injunction of the commutations, NBC News said.
Biden has faced criticisms for his commutations.
"President Biden showed more mercy for Davis than this corrupt officer ever showed for Kim Groves, her children and family, and the people of New Orleans," The Office of the Independent Police Monitor in New Orleans said.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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