Biden Clemency Rejected by 2 Death Row Inmates

Joe Biden is dropping pardons like wildfire on his way out the door.  

As part of this fiasco, Biden offered clemency to 37 of the 40 federal prisons on death row.  

Well, two of them said, “No thank you, Joe.” 

Declined 

The rejections came from Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis.  

Agofsky killed a bank manager, but that is not why he was sentenced to death.  

While in prison, he stomped another prisoner to death, earning himself a seat on death row.  

Davis is a former police officer in New Orleans who had a drug dealer kill a witness who allegedly saw Davis giving a teenager a beat down and filed a complaint against him.  

His death sentence had been suspended, but it was later reinstated.  

These guys don’t want to die, but they believe clemency will hurt their chances of appeal. 

Agofsky's filing stated, "To commute his sentence now, while the defendant has active litigation in court, is to strip him of the protection of heightened scrutiny. This constitutes an undue burden, and leaves the defendant in a position of fundamental unfairness, which would decimate his pending appellate procedures.” 

Davis "has always maintained that having a death sentence would draw attention to the overwhelming misconduct" of the DOJ. 

The bad news for both of them is that regardless of what they want, there is a precedent in place from the Supreme Court that the president does not need their approval.  

So, unless their motions to have the clemency removed are successful, Biden’s clemency will stand whether they like it or not.  

However, I will say that the decision that has standing is nearly a century old, so I am curious if the court will revisit this.