FILE IMAGE – Cells inside the Suffolk County Correctional Jail Facility in Riverhead, New York on Jan. 16, 2019. (Photo by J. Conrad Williams Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images)
A North Texas drug dealer was among seven Texas inmates who had their federal execution commuted on Monday by President Joe Biden.
Julius Omar Robinson was among the inmates who will now be facing life in prison instead of execution.
Robinson, an Arlington drug dealer, was convicted of killing three men in 2002. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection for two of the killings and life in prison for the third.
In one of the murders, Robinson killed Johnny Lee Shelton after mistaking him for his intended target, a man known as “Big Friday.”
Court documents for a 2008 appeal state Robinson believed Big Friday was responsible for a carjacking several months before.
Two of Robinson’s associates were at a Dallas nightclub when they saw Shelton and mistook him for Big Friday and called Robinson.
Prosecutors said Robinson waited for Shelton to leave the club and followed his car onto the highway and shot him from the window with an assault rifle.
Robinson was also convicted of killing a man at close range after being sold a $17,000 block of wood instead of narcotics.
Robinson was a former athlete at Lamar High School in Arlington and the defense had former coaches testify that he was “reasonably quiet” and “very respectful,” according to court documents.
Court documents show Robinson had been denied several appeals.
Seven total Texas inmates had sentences commuted
Biden commutes sentences of death row inmates
President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment.
Six other Texas inmates had their sentences commuted to life in prison instead of death.
The inmates were all convicted of killing other inmates inside a federal correctional facility in Beaumont, Texas.
- Shannon Wayne Agofsky was serving a life sentence when he beat another inmate to death.
- Christopher Cramer and Ricky Allen Fackrell stabbed another inmate to death and were sentenced to death in 2018.
- Jospeh Ebron stabbed another inmate to death.
- Mark Isaac Snarr and Edgar Garcia stabbed an inmate to death and stabbed two correctional officers.
Biden imposed a moratorium on executions when he took office and has said that federal death penalties should only be given in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.
In total, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 people on death row on Monday.
The Source: Information in this story comes from the White House and court documents.
