Death row killers pardoned by Joe Biden refuse to sign papers for bizarre reason
Len Davis and Shannon Agofsky were among 37 federal inmates who had their death sentences commuted by President Joe Biden in December
In a strange turn of events, two death row inmates pardoned by U.S. President Joe Biden have refused to sign their release documents.
Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, both held at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, filed motions on December 30, arguing that accepting clemency would hinder their ongoing appeals to prove their innocence.
The act of clemency was part of Biden's decision last month to commute the death sentences of 37 federal inmates to life without parole. Davis, a former New Orleans police officer, was convicted in 1994 for orchestrating the murder of Kim Groves, a local resident who had filed a complaint alleging Davis had beaten a teenager.
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Prosecutors argued he hired a drug dealer to kill Groves in retaliation, charging him with violating her civil rights. His death sentence was initially overturned by a federal appeals court but reinstated in 2005.
In his court filing, Davis maintains his innocence and argues that the federal court lacked jurisdiction to try him for civil rights violations.
Shannon Agofsky, who remains on death row for a gruesome murder, insists that keeping his death sentence is key to shedding light on what he calls "overwhelming misconduct" by the Department of Justice. His legal filing reveals that taking clemency would weaken his fight against his conviction and sentence based on procedural and jurisdictional issues.
Agofsky, found guilty in 1989 for slaying Oklahoma bank president Dan Short, has also turned down President Biden's offer of clemency. Prosecutors recounted how Shannon and Joseph Agofsky, kidnapped Short, shackled him to a chair and drowned him in a lake, following a $71,000 (£56,600) bank robbery.
Although Joseph escaped with a life sentence for the robbery, Shannon faced justice for both theft and murder, initially getting life in prison. However, in 2001, while incarcerated, Agofsky killed another inmate in Texas, a crime for which a jury handed down a capital punishment recommendation three years later.
Agofsky challenges the validity of his conviction over the fellow inmate’s death in his recent filing and is striving to prove his innocence in the case that originally landed him behind bars. He maintains that accepting a commute would deprive him of critical legal options, including "heightened scrutiny," available exclusively to those on death row appealing their penalties.
Both men are of the opinion that Biden's decision puts their long-term efforts to overturn their convictions and achieve exoneration at risk. The president's act of clemency, which is part of his administration's wider stance against capital punishment, has been applauded by those opposed to the death penalty but has also raised questions about its effect on ongoing legal disputes.
If the courts approve the inmates' appeals to halt the commutations, it could establish a legal precedent for challenging executive clemency - a power traditionally seen as absolute under the Constitution.