Two death row inmates, Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, are challenging President Biden's decision to commute their sentences to life without parole. They argue that they never requested clemency and therefore it cannot be legally granted. The Department of Justice maintains that prisoners have no right to reject leniency. Agofsky and Davis both claim innocence and say the commutations will hinder their appeals.
Late last month, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row to life without the possibility of parole. Now, two of those prisoners, Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, are seeking to have their commutations blocked. All federal death row inmates are housed in a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Both prisoners argue that because they did not request to be spared the death penalty , such a commutation cannot be legally granted.
However, the Department of Justice has countered that prisoners have 'no authority to reject' the act of leniency. Agofsky was incarcerated for the 1989 murder of a bank president. While in prison, he stomped another prisoner to death. Davis was a New Orleans police officer when he hired a hitman to murder a woman who filed a brutality complaint against him. Both Agofsky and Davis have maintained their innocence and argued that the commutations would negatively impact their appeals. In a court filing, Agofsky described the mass commutation as a 'publicity stunt enacted by President Joe Biden'. He stated, 'The defendant never requested commutation. The defendant never filed for commutation. The defendant does not want commutation, and refused to sign the papers offered with the commutation.' Two former death row prisoners have no right to challenge the decision from President Joe Biden that spared their lives, a court has been told. (Department of Corrections) In death penalty cases, a doctrine of 'heightened scrutiny' exists, allowing judges to act with an increased level of care and consideration. Agofsky argued that this doctrine should apply in his case. Agofsky described the mass commutation as 'nothing but empty virtue signaling'. Prisoner Davis has always maintained that having a death sentence would draw attention to the overwhelming misconduct by the Department of 'Justice' in his case,' he wrote in his handwritten filing. Biden had issued a moratorium on federal executions during his presidency, citing his opposition to the death penalty. Only three prisoners on federal death row were not granted commutations, all of whom were found guilty of high-profile acts of mass murder and terror. Dylann Roof killed nine Black parishioners at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. And Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was one of two brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 that killed three and maimed many others. Death row inmates Robert Bowers, from left, the gunman who massacred 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, Dylann Roof, who committed racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for carrying out the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing attack. (AP) In that trial, a white supremacist murdered 10 black shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. That man, Payton Gendron, has already been found guilty in a New York court and is serving a life sentence
Crime DEATH PENALTY COMMUTATION PRISONERS JOE BIDEN JUSTICE DEPARTMENT APPEALS INNOCENCE
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