The extraordinary action taken by two of the 37 federal prisoners whose death sentences were reduced by President Joe Biden last month, sparing them from the capital penalty, is that they are refusing to sign documents acknowledging his compassionate action.
Inmates Len Davis and Shannon Agofsky of the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, filed emergency motions in federal court in the southern district of the state on December 30 to prevent their death sentences from being converted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
As they attempt to appeal their cases on the grounds of innocence, the guys feel that getting their sentences modified will damage them legally.
The courts meticulously review death penalty appeals through a judicial process called “heightened scrutiny,” whereby they look for mistakes in death penalty cases due to the sentence’s life-or-death repercussions. Agofsky stated that he doesn’t want to lose that extra examination, even though the procedure doesn’t always increase the chances of success.
“The defendant would be deprived of the safeguard of heightened scrutiny if his sentence were to be commuted at this time, when he is still involved in legal proceedings. According to Agofsky’s filing, this is an excessive burden and places the defendant in a fundamentally unfair situation that would severely harm his ongoing appeals.
“Has always maintained that having a death sentence would draw attention to the overwhelming misconduct” he claims the Justice Department has committed, Davis wrote in his filing.
Additionally, he added that he “appreciates the court’s prompt attention to this rapidly evolving constitutional dilemma.” The case law surrounding this matter is somewhat ambiguous.
However, restoring death sentences to prisoners is a difficult task, according to Dan Kobil, a constitutional law professor at Columbus, Ohio’s Capital University Law School who has defended convicts in clemency and death penalty cases.
For instance, according to a 1927 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, a president can pardon and give reprieves, and “the convict’s consent is not required.”
Kobil stated that although there are cases of inmates who have declined a commutation because they would like to be put to death, “we impose sentences for the public welfare, the president and governors in states commute sentences for the public welfare.”
Most federal death row inmates expressed gratitude for Biden’s decision, “which is constitutionally authorized and absolute,” according to Robin Maher, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
A request for comment on Monday was not immediately answered by the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department.
Agofsky was found guilty in 1989 of killing Dan Short, the president of an Oklahoma bank, whose body was discovered in a lake. Agofsky and his brother, Joseph Agofsky, allegedly kidnapped and murdered Short before robbing his bank of $71,000, according to federal authorities.
Joseph Agofsky was found not guilty of murder by a jury, but he was given a life sentence for the robbery, and Shannon Agofsky was given a life term for both murder and robbery. In 2013, Joseph Agofsky passed away in prison.
While confined in a Texas prison, Shannon Agofsky was found guilty of the stomping death of fellow prisoner Luther Plant in 2001. In 2004, a jury recommended that Agofsky be executed.
Agofsky, 53, stated in his application for an injunction to commute Biden’s sentence that he is attempting to “establish his innocence in the original case for which he was incarcerated” and that he is contesting how he was charged with murder in the stomping death.
“A commutation was never requested by the defendant. According to the complaint, the defendant never submitted a commutation request. “The defendant does not want commutation, and refused to sign the papers offered with the commutation.”
Laura, Agofsky’s wife, who wed him in a phone ceremony in 2019, said Monday that his attorneys had pushed him to ask for a presidential commutation in his case, but he declined because being on death row gave him access to legal representation that is essential in his appeals.
However, Laura Agofsky stated that her husband continues to receive legal assistance. In her opinion, there is evidence that can establish his innocence, so having his sentence mitigated alone is “not a win for him,” she added.
In a phone conversation, Laura Agofsky stated, “He doesn’t want to die in prison being labeled a cold-blooded killer.”
In 1994, Davis, a former police officer in New Orleans, was found guilty of killing Kim Groves, who had complained that he had beaten a youngster in her Lower Ninth Ward area. Davis paid a drug dealer to kill Groves, according to the prosecution, and the officer was accused of breaching Groves’ civil rights. A federal appeals court overturned Davis’ initial death sentence, but it was reaffirmed in 2005.
The case was a component of a larger federal investigation investigating police corruption in New Orleans.
Davis, who is sixty years old, “has always maintained his innocence and argued that federal court had no jurisdiction to try him for civil rights offenses,” according to his filing.
In their demands for an injunction of the commutations, Davis and Agofsky are both requesting that a judge choose a co-counsel.
According to Maher of the Death Penalty Information Center, regardless of whether they are on death row, everyone charged of a federal crime has the constitutional right to legal representation during their trial and in their appeal if found guilty.
“Death sentences are the most extreme sanction that can be given in a criminal case, and they deserve the highest quality legal representation and judicial scrutiny,” Maher stated.
After weeks of anticipation, Biden decided to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates, all of whom were men. A coalition of anti-death penalty and human rights organizations that have voiced their objections to President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to increase federal executions during his second term praised him.
Under Biden, the Justice Department put an end to executions.
“I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” Biden said in a statement announcing the commutation. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
However, Biden refused to commutate three federal death row inmates who had participated in terrorist attacks or mass murders.
Nevertheless, the president has come under fire for commuting the 37 other people’s sentences.
According to the New Orleans civilian police oversight organization Office of the Independent Police Monitor, which was established in 2009, Michael Davis’ death sentence is “a painful reminder that justice is not always served as it should be.”
“In this action, President Biden showed more mercy for Davis than this corrupt officer ever showed for Kim Groves, her children and family, and the people of New Orleans,” the White House said in a statement.
Although she is aware that reversing the commutation is a difficult task, Laura Agofsky, a German national who initially became pen friends with her husband and has not yet met him in person, stated that he is still committed to challenging his case.
Laura Agofsky, a supporter of her husband and member of the German Coalition to Abolish the Death sentence, stated, “Given Biden’s prior remarks regarding the death penalty, we’ve been discussing the possibility of a commutation ever since he was elected.” (The death penalty is not practiced in Germany.)
Although Biden’s announcement was “a very black day for us,” she continued, “we know they will fight for him now that we know he will keep his lawyers.”
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