One of 37 killers whose death sentences Biden commuted is a Tarrant County triple-murderer
An Arlington drug dealer who murdered three men gangland-style about 25 years ago was one of 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden on Monday.
Julius Omar Robinson will now face life in prison without parole. Six other death-row inmates from Texas were also on the list of commutations in the final weeks of Biden’s presidency.
Robinson was a leader in an Arlington-based drug ring. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2002 for two murders and given life without parole for the third.
Robinson had been a starting linebacker at Arlington Lamar High School. At sentencing, he had the support of former coaches who asked jurors to spare his life.
Biden said the commutations were consistent with the moratorium his administration had imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. Three other federal death-row inmates did not get their sentences commuted.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said in a statement. “But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
Robinson had filed several appeals and petitions over the years to get off death row.
According to Star-Telegram reporting in 2002, Robinson shot Johnny Lee Shelton, 31, on Central Expressway in north Dallas; Juan Reyes, 21, in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas; and Rudolfo Resendez, 32, in a remote area of east Fort Worth.
In the drive-by killing on Central Expressway, Robinson opened fire on Shelton because he resembled and drove the same kind of car, a white Cadillac, as the intended victim, a drug dealer called “Big Friday,” according to trial testimony.
The New York Times, citing the Death Penalty Information Center, said six other men from Texas had their sentences converted to life without parole:
- Shannon Wayne Agofsky, who was sentenced to death in 2004 for the killing of a prisoner in a federal prison.
- Christopher Emory Cramer and Ricky Allen Fackrell, co-defendants sentenced to death for the killing of a fellow prisoner in a federal prison in 2018.
- Joseph Ebron, who was sentenced to death for the killing of a prisoner in a federal prison in 2019.
- Edgar Baltazar Garcia and Mark Isaac Snarr, sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of a fellow inmate while incarcerated in a federal prison.
This story was originally published December 23, 2024 at 2:27 PM.