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Oklahoma Man Executed for 1988 Death

by The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 18, 2001

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - A man who strangled a 64-year-old grandmother after breaking into her home in 1988 was put to death by injection Tuesday night. Jerald Wayne Harjo, 40, broke into Ruth Porter's house to try to find the keys to her van and killed her in her bed, authorities said. Investigators believe he also raped her.

Porter's daughter found the body of the elementary school secretary the next morning. A pillow had been forced onto her face, crushing her windpipe.

Authorities said Harjo had been bicycling to his brother's house when it began to rain. He decided to ditch the bicycle and steal Porter's van.

At the time, Harjo was on a suspended sentence for stealing a car.

He confessed to the murder after investigators found his muddy tennis shoe prints on Porter's floor, former Seminole County Sheriff Charles Sisco said.

Harjo was the 14th person executed this year in Oklahoma and the 44th since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976.


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