Two Death Row Inmates Refuse to Accept President Biden’s Commutation

Two prisoners whose death sentences President Joe Biden (D) commuted do not want to accept his action, NBC News reported on Monday.

Biden commuted the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row in late December, which converted their punishments to life in prison, Breitbart News reported at the time.

Biden said, “I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system.”

However, two inmates, identified as Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, recently filed emergency motions in federal court “seeking an injunction to block having their death sentences commuted to life in prison without parole,” the NBC article read.

“The men believe that having their sentences commuted would put them at a legal disadvantage as they seek to appeal their cases based on claims of innocence,” the report stated.

Images show the two inmates:

Agofsky and Davis are housed at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, according to Newsmax.

The outlet noted 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 sentenced to death in 2004 following his conviction regarding a case in which he stomped a fellow prison inmate to death, per the New York Post.

“Agofsky had been serving a life sentence on murder and robbery charges dating back to the 1989 abduction and slaying of a bank president before he was convicted of the 2001 prison killing,” the outlet said.

He claims he is innocent in the 1989 case and has disputed how he was charged in the later case.

“Davis, 60, is a former New Orleans, La., police officer who was convicted of hiring a hitman to kill Kim Groves in 1994 after she had filed a complaint against him,” the Post article said.

Per the NBC report, the men now want “a judge to appoint a co-counsel in their requests for an injunction of the commutations.”

On the list of convicted offenders whose sentences Biden commuted are criminals sentenced for killings of police and military officers and individuals on federal land, people involved in deadly bank robberies and drug deals, and the killings of guards or prisoners in federal buildings.