Two death row inmates refuse Biden’s commutations

President Biden commuted death sentences for 37 federal prisoners to life in prison without parole in December and two of those inmates have declined to accept the commutations. 

Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, who are both being held in federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, filed emergency motions in court on December 30 to obtain injunctions to formally refuse the commutations, arguing that they hinder their efforts to appeal their cases.

“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,” Agofsky’s filing read, according to NBC News.

According to the Guardian, Davis, a former New Orleans police officer, was convicted for arranging the 1994 murder of Kim Groves, who had filed a civil complaint against him, which accused him of beating up a teenager in her neighborhood.

Agofsky, who was charged in the killing of a fellow prisoner in 2001 after he was sentenced to life for murder and robbery charges. In his filing, Agofsky said he is in the process of proving his innocence in both cases.

"The defendant never requested commutation. The defendant never filed for commutation," the filing said. “The defendant does not want commutation, and refused to sign the papers offered with the commutation."