In a decision which blindsided the family members of their victims, President Joe Biden has chosen to commute the death sentences of 37 federal inmates.

However, two of those individuals are now fighting the bombshell move as part of an effort to remain on death row. 

One man was convicted of two separate murders 15 years apart

According to Fox News, the two figures in question are 53-year-old Shannon Agofsky and 60-year-old Len Davis, both of whom currently reside at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Agofsky was convicted in 1989 of murdering Oklahoma bank president Dan Short before later dumping his body in a lake and stealing $71,000 from the bank.

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He was convicted of murder again in 2004 for killing a fellow prison inmate, with his second homicide case ending in a death sentence.

Meanwhile, Davis is a former New Orleans police officer who was found guilty of murdering a woman in 1994 after she had filed a complaint against him.

Inmates say that death sentences provides them with additional legal resources

"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 court filing reads.

"This constitutes an undue burden, and leaves the defendant in a position of fundamental unfairness, which would decimate his pending appellate procedures," it continued.

Agofsky's brief further maintained that he seeks to "establish his innocence in the original case for which he was incarcerated."

Meanwhile, Davis' filing states that he "has always maintained that having a death sentence would draw attention to the overwhelming misconduct" against the Justice Department.

Agofsky "doesn't want to die in prison being labeled a cold-blooded killer"

Laura Agofsky married Agofsky in 2019 while he was behind bars, and Fox News noted how she said his lawyers had advised him to seek a presidential commutation.

Yet he refused on the grounds that his status as a death row inmate provides him with legal resources which he would not otherwise have.

Mrs. Agofsky insisted that a commutation is "not a win for" her husband before stressing that he "doesn't want to die in prison being labeled a cold-blooded killer."

Meanwhile, Fox News recalled how the Supreme Court ruled in 1927 that a president may issue a pardon or reprieve without the recipient's consent.