Southwest Missourian among Biden death row commutations

President Joe Biden announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row.

Those individuals will have their sentences reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole.

One of them used to live in southwest Missouri.

In October of 1989, then 18-year-old Shannon Wayne Agofsky robbed the State Bank of Noel and murdered the bank’s president, Dan Short, by chaining him to a chair and throwing him into Grand Lake. Short’s body was found floating near Cowskin Bridge.

Agofsky and his brother reportedly took more than $71,000 in the robbery.

Agofsky was given a life sentence in prison in 1992.

While in prison, Agofsky murdered another inmate and was given the death penalty for his crime.

Biden says his “criminal justice record has transformed individual lives and positively impacted communities, especially historically marginalized communities. In the coming weeks, the President will take additional steps to provide meaningful second chances and continue to review additional pardons and commutations.”

OzarksFirst has more details, including video footage from the original reports.