We are profiling each of the monsters whose federal death sentences President Joe Biden just commuted and their victims.
Shannon Wayne Agofsky chained a Missouri bank president named Dan Short to a chair and then threw him in a lake to die. He later stomped another inmate, Luther Plant, to death on a concrete floor, according to court records.
The second crime got him the death sentence. Short’s murder was raised by the government during sentencing.
President Joe Biden just saved his life by commuting his death sentence to life in prison.
Short, 51, was described as a “genuine nice guy” and “community booster” who moved to Noel, Missouri, in 1986, where he performed radio commentary for high school sporting events and wrote a sports column for the local newspaper, according to a 1989 article in the Daily American Republic, obtained by Wisconsin Right Now from historical archives.
Short was the “master of ceremonies at the community Christmas parade” and was described as “the kind of guy who, instead of sending someone to get the mail each morning, would walk to the post office and get it himself.” He had a 24-year banking career. He was kidnapped from his home before being forced to open a bank vault and being thrown into the lake, the Daily American Republic reported.
A December 23 statement from the White House announced that Biden 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 those 37 is Shannon Agofsky.
We are profiling each of the 37 because the American public has a right to know what they did and who their victims were. These are the men whose lives Biden just saved.
Commutation #1: Shannon Wayne Agofsky
Victims: Dan Short and Luther Plant
Killer Biden Saved: Shannon Wayne Agofsky
The details:
“During or fleeing from an armed robbery of a bank, Agofsky killed its president by tying him to a chair and throwing him into a lake. The Government’s evidence also showed that Agofsky had engaged in serious misconduct while in prison,” court records say.
The heist occurred at “the State Bank of Noel, located in rural southwest Missouri.”
On October 11, 1989, “Short’s body was found floating in Grand Lake of the Cherokees, near Cowskin Bridge. Investigators found a chair, a concrete block, and a chain hoist attached with gray duct tape to Short’s left ankle. A wallet found on the body contained Short’s identification. After conducting an autopsy and reviewing Short’s dental records, Dr. Robert Hemphill determined the body to be that of Short, and submitted a death certificate that listed drowning as the cause of death,” court records say. Agofsky’s brother Joseph was also arrested. The combined weight of the victim, block and chair was 250 pounds, court records say.
“The government introduced expert testimony identifying four separate fingerprints of Shannon Agofsky, recovered from the tacky side of duct tape used to bind Short to the chair.” A man who looked like him was seen casing the bank president’s home.
Next, “Agofsky murdered Luther Plant, an inmate incarcerated with Agofsky at the federal penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas. Agofsky killed Plant by striking him and then repeatedly stomping his head and neck after he fell to the concrete floor,” court records say.
“Jurors on Tuesday saw a videotape of a dying Luther Plant, 37, with his arms and legs twitching, his face bloody and mangled,” My Plainview reported. Plant was a convicted arsonist.
Here’s how the New York Times characterized Agofsky’s crimes: “sentenced in 2004 in Texas. Convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of a prisoner in a federal prison.”
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