2 Cases Connected To Oklahoma Among Biden’s Death Row Commutations

President Joe Biden has commuted the death sentences of 37 federal inmates, including two men with connections to crimes in Oklahoma and neighboring states.

Related Story: Biden Commutes Sentences Of Federal Death Row Inmates To Life In Prison Without Parole

Here’s a closer look at the cases of Shannon Wayne Agofsky and Edward Leon Fields Jr., whose sentences were among those commuted.

Shannon Wayne Agofsky

Shannon Wayne Agofsky was serving a life sentence for a 1989 armed robbery and murder when he received the death penalty in 2004 for the killing of fellow inmate Luther Plant.

Agofsky, alongside his brother Joseph, had been convicted of robbing the State Bank of Noel, Missouri, and murdering its president, Dan Short. The brothers kidnapped Short from his Benton County home, forced him to open the vault, and later bound him to a chair before dumping him into Grand Lake in Delaware County, Oklahoma.

Short’s cause of death was ruled a drowning.

In 2004, while incarcerated in Orange, Texas, Agofsky brutally beat and stomped fellow inmate Plant to death in a prison recreation area. This act earned him a federal death sentence. Agofsky’s commutation is part of the broader set of clemency actions announced this week.

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Edward Leon Fields Jr.

In 2005, Edward Leon Fields Jr. was sentenced to death for the brutal murders of Charles and Shirley Chick at a campground south of Poteau in LeFlore County.

According to federal court documents, Fields, armed with a rifle, stalked the couple for 20 minutes while dressed in a ghillie suit. On July 10, 2003, Fields fatally shot Charles near the couple's tent before pursuing and killing Shirley as she attempted to flee to their van.

Fields later shot both victims again at close range and stole $340 in cash and their credit cards. Evidence, including the ghillie suit and murder weapon, was discovered in his vehicle, and Fields confessed during an FBI interview. Fields' attorneys argued he suffered from severe side effects of a prescription drug due to a misdiagnosed mental health condition. Despite multiple appeals, he remained on death row until Biden’s clemency order.

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While their death sentences have been commuted, Fields and Agofsky will serve life sentences without the possibility of parole, ensuring they remain in custody for the rest of their lives. The clemency order signals a shift in federal policy but leaves unresolved questions about the future of the death penalty in the United States.

President-elect Trump has said he would resume executions and perhaps attempt to expand the crimes that qualify for capital punishment.