The Department of Justice this week argued that two prisoners on federal death row who want their presidential commutations nullified must accept them, NBC News reported.
Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, inmates on federal death row in Indiana, filed emergency injunctions last week to block the change in their sentences, saying that the move could affect their ongoing appeals.
Agofsky and his brother, Joseph Agofsky, were convicted of the 1989 murder of Dan Short, a bank president in Arkansas, after abducting and robbing him. Davis, a former New Orleans police officer, was convicted of arranging the 1994 murder of Kim Groves, who had filed a complaint accusing Davis of brutalizing a teenager.
Agofsky, 53, and Davis, 60, maintain their innocence and are appealing their sentences.
Attorneys for the Justice Department argued in response to the motion by Davis that "The President's commutation of a sentence 'is the determination of the ultimate authority that the public welfare will be better served by inflicting less than what the judgment fixed,'" and claimed that "Allowing Davis to veto this action would encroach on this exclusive and ultimate authority that is 'part of the Constitutional scheme.'"
Agofsky, in his filing, wrote about his concern that leaving federal death row would remove the heightened scrutiny granted to his case. The Department wrote in response to Agofsky's filing that he lacked a "jurisdictional basis for his petition."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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