Two of the 37 death row inmates whose sentences were commuted by Joe Biden are seeking to reject the president’s clemency.
Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, both on death row at a federal prison in Indiana, filed an emergency injunction on December 30 to block the commutation.
Agofsky and Davis still maintain their innocence and argue that Biden’s decision makes it less likely that courts will appeal.
“If he commutes his sentence now, while the defendant is actively litigating in court, he will deprive him of the protection of enhanced supervision,” Agofsky said. “This imposes an excessive burden and places the defendant in a position of fundamental unfairness, which would decimate his ongoing appeals.”
Likewise, Davis’ attorneys argue that their client “has always maintained that receiving 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, after receiving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of an Oklahoma bank president along with his brother.
Davis, 60, was sentenced to death for arranging the death of Kim Groves in 1994 after she filed a cruelty complaint against him.
Robin Maher, who runs the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, said NBC News that most of those who received clemency were grateful for Biden’s decision.
Two of the 37 death row inmates whose sentences Joe Biden commuted are seeking to reject the president’s clemency. Shannon Agofsky (pictured left) and Len Davis (pictured right), both on death row at a federal prison in Indiana, filed emergency injunctions on December 30 to block the commutation.
Their lawyers argue that since Agofsky and Davis still maintain their innocence, Biden’s decision makes it less likely that the courts will appeal their cases.
However, Agofsky’s wife Laura said her husband “doesn’t want to die in prison being labeled a cold-blooded murderer,” adding that this is “not a victory for him.”
Laura Agofsky, a German citizen, married her husband over the phone in 2019 and has become an advocate for him from the outside.
Davis, who is asking the court to provide himself and Agofsky with co-counsel to try both cases, said he has “always maintained his innocence and argued that the federal court had no jurisdiction to try him for violations of civil rights.’
Just before Christmas, Biden announced that he is translating the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row.
He commuted their sentences to life in prison just weeks before the president’s election Donald Trump takes office, which plans to expand the death penalty.
This step saves people’s lives convicted of murdersincluding the killings of police and military officers, people on federal lands, and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities.
It means only three federal inmates continue to be executed, including the Boston Marathon bomber and hate crime murderers.
Now convicted murderers, bank robbers, kidnappers and rapists will escape federal execution.
These individuals include convicted murderers Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks, who kidnapped a woman after escaping from prison, convicted car thief, and Marcivicci Barnette, who murdered a man and his ex-girlfriend; another man, Anthony Battle, who killed a prison guard.
In addition, a man who took part in a contract killing of a naval officer, and Thomas Sanders, who murdered a 12-year-old girl, will be spared from execution.
Several convicted bank robbers – who killed innocent victims during their crimes – are also being pardoned, including Billie Allen and Norris Holder, Brandon Council and Daryl Lawrence.
President Joe Biden speaks during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, December 16, 2024
Those not spared include Dylann Roof (pictured left), who carried out the racist killings of nine black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (photo right)
“I have 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 people on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with my administration’s moratorium on federal executions other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass killings.”
Those not spared include Dylann Roof, who performed the performance Racist killings in 2015 of nine black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who shot and killed 11 congregants in Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history.
Biden, 82, recently commuted the prison sentence of Shanlin Jin, a Chinese national who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography — a move that drew strong criticism from newly elected President Donald Trump.
Biden’s latest move shocked an America where 53 percent of people support the death penalty, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversees federal prisons, is said to have recommended that the president omit all but a handful of cases involving terrorism and hate crimes.
The Biden administration announced a 2021 moratorium on the federal death penalty to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden’s term.
But Biden had even pledged in the past to pursue the issue further, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats of terrorism and hate-motivated mass killings.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, has repeatedly spoken about expanding the number of executions
While running for president in 2020, Biden’s campaign website said he would “work to pass legislation abolishing the death penalty at the federal leveland encourage states to follow the federal government’s lead.”
Similar language did not appear on Biden’s reelection website before he did left the presidential race in July.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, mourn the victims of their despicable actions, and mourn all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable losses,” 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 end the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
He took a political jab at Trump, saying, “In good conscience, I cannot sit back and let a new administration resume the executions I stopped.”
Trump, who takes office on January 20, has repeatedly spoken about expanding the number of executions.
In a speech announcing his 2024 campaignTrump called on those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous actions.” He later vowed to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China’s harsher treatment of drug traffickers. During his first term as president, Trump also advocated 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 of that may have happened quickly enough to have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus on federal death row in Indiana.
Those were the first federal executions since 2003. The last three took place after Election Day in November 2020, but before Trump left office in January, they marked the first time since Grover Cleveland in 1889 that federal prisoners were put to death by a paralyzed president.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, has repeatedly spoken about expanding the number of executions
The Biden administration announced a moratorium on the federal death penalty in 2021 to study the protocols used, suspending executions during Biden’s term
Biden faced with the recent pressure from advocacy groups urging him to take action to make it harder for Trump to increase the use of the death penalty for federal prisoners.
The president’s announcement also comes less than two weeks after him the sentences converted by about 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes, the largest single-day clemency in modern history.
The announcement also followed the post-election pardon Biden granted his son Hunter over 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 sweeps preventive pardon to government officials and other allies the White House fears could be unjust target of Trump second government.
Speculation that Biden could commute federal death sentences intensified last week after the White House announced he plans to do so visits Italy during the last foreign trip of his presidency next month.
Biden, a practicing Catholic, will meet Pope Francis, who recently spoke called for prayers for American death row inmates in the hope that their sentences will be commuted.