Two of the 37 death row inmates who had their sentences commuted by Joe Biden are trying to reject the president’s clemency.
Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, who both reside on death row at a federal prison in Indiana, filed emergency injunctions on December 30 to block the commutations.
Agofsky and Davis still maintain their innocence and claim Biden’s decision makes it less likely that courts will hear an 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,’ Agofsky’s filing claims.
‘This constitutes an undue burden, and leaves the defendant in a position of fundamental unfairness, which would decimate his pending appellate procedures.’
Similarly, Davis’ attorneys argue that their client ‘has always maintained that having a death sentence would draw attention to the overwhelming misconduct.’
Agofsky, 53, was sentenced to death in 2004 for the 2001 murder by stomping of another inmate at a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas. His was initially given a life sentence in the 1989 murder of an Oklahoma bank president alongside his brother.
His wife Laura said her husband ‘doesn’t want to die in prison being labeled a cold-blooded killer,’ adding that this is ‘not a win for him.’
Two of the 37 death row inmates who Joe Biden commuted the sentences of are trying to reject the president’s clemency. Shannon Agofsky (pictured left) and Len Davis (pictured right), who both reside on death row at a federal prison in Indiana , filed emergency injunctions on December 30 to block the commutations
Their attorneys argue that, as Agofsky and Davis still maintain their innocence, that Biden’s decision makes it less likely that the courts will hear an appeal their cases
Davis, 60, was sentenced to death for arranging the death of Kim Groves in 1994 after she filed a brutality complaint against him.
Davis, who is asking the court to supply himself and Agofsky with a co-counsel to deal with both of their cases, said he ‘has always maintained his innocence and argued that federal court had no jurisdiction to try him for civil rights offenses.’
Robin Maher, who runs the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, told NBC News that most of those who received clemency were grateful for Biden’s decision.
Just before Christmas, Biden announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row.
He is converting their punishments to life in prison just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, who is planning to expand the death penalty.
The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings, including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities.
It means just three federal inmates are still facing execution, including the Boston Marathon bomber and hate crimes killers.
Now, convicted murderers, bank robbers, kidnappers and rapists will escape federal execution.
President Joe Biden speaks during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024
Those not spared include Dylann Roof (pictured left), who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (pictured right)
Those individuals include convicted murderers Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks, who kidnapped a woman after making a break from prison, convicted carjacker, and Marcivicci Barnette, who killed a man and his ex-girlfriend; another man, Anthony Battle, who killed a prison guard.
In addition, a man who participated in a murder-for-hire plot on a Navy officer’s life, and Thomas Sanders, who killed a 12-year-old girl, will be spared from execution.
Several convicted bank robbers – who killed innocent victims during their crimes – are also getting clemency including Billie Allen and Norris Holder, Brandon Council and Daryl Lawrence.
‘I´ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,’ Biden said in a statement obtained by DailyMail.com.
‘Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.’
Those not spared include Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh´s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.
Biden, 82, recently commuted the prison sentence of Shanlin Jin, a Chinese citizen who pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography – a move that invited strong criticism from President-elect Donald Trump.
Biden’s latest move shocked an America in which 53 per cent of people support the death penalty, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversees federal prisons, is said to have recommended that the president commute all but a handful of terrorism and hate-crimes cases.
The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden’s term.
But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions
While running for president in 2020, Biden’s campaign website said he would ‘work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government´s example.’
Similar language didn’t appear on Biden’s reelection website before he left the presidential race in July.
‘Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,’ Biden’s statement said. ‘But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.’
He took a political jab at Trump, saying, ‘In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.’
Trump, who takes office on January 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions.
In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign, Trump called for those ‘caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.’ He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China’s harsher treatment of drug peddlers. During his first term as president, Trump also advocated for the death penalty for drug dealers.
There were 13 federal executions during Trump’s first term, more than under any president in modern history, and some may have happened fast enough to have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus at the federal death row facility in Indiana.
Those were the first federal executions since 2003. The final three occurred after Election Day in November 2020 but before Trump left office the following January, the first time federal prisoners were put to death by a lame-duck president since Grover Cleveland in 1889.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions
The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden’s term
Biden faced recent pressure from advocacy groups urging him to act to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates.
The president’s announcement also comes less than two weeks after he commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and of 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes, the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
The announcement also followed the post-election pardon that Biden granted his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges after long saying he would not issue one, sparking an uproar in Washington.
The pardon also raised questions about whether he would issue sweeping preemptive pardons for administration officials and other allies who the White House worries could be unjustly targeted by Trump´s second administration.
Speculation that Biden could commute federal death sentences intensified last week after the White House announced he plans to visit Italy on the final foreign trip of his presidency next month.
Biden, a practicing Catholic, will meet with Pope Francis, who recently called for prayers for U.S. death row inmates in hopes their sentences will be commuted.
