Two death row inmates have rejected the clemency granted to them by Joe Biden, opting to take their chance in the courts.

Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis filed emergency motions at a court in Indiana blocking the commutation of their death sentences to life in prison without parole having refused to sign the paperwork that will allow their pardons to take effect.

Agofsky’s lawyer said that he “never requested commutation” and said it would “decimate his pending appellate procedures”.

Davis said he hoped that having the threat of the death penalty hanging over him would draw attention to the “overwhelming misconduct” by the department of justice.

The unusual move came after the president issued 37 pardons last month, the largest commutation of death sentences in US history.

Agofsky, 53, was already serving life for murdering a bank president when he killed a fellow inmate in 2004, leading to his death sentence.

Davis, 60, is a former New Orleans police officer who was convicted of hiring a hitman to kill a woman in 1994 after she filed a complaint against him. Both men are incarcerated at the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

In a legal filing, lawyers for Agofsky said he was trying to “establish his innocence in the original case for which he was incarcerated”.

The filing added that commuting his sentence would leave Agofsky in a “position of fundamental unfairness, which would decimate his pending appellate procedures”.

Davis called the clemency from Mr Biden a “fast-moving constitutional conundrum”.

Experts said both men had an uphill battle in refusing the commutation of their death sentences.