FEBRUARY 17, 2004:

OKLAHOMA - Tulsa killer Cleary executed by state

In McAlester Norman Richard Cleary was put to death Tuesday for the 1991 shooting death of a Tulsa housekeeper.

Cleary was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m., said Jerry Massie, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

Cleary, 38, was convicted in 1993 for the murder of Wanda Neafus, 44, who worked as a housekeeper at a Tulsa home Cleary and an accomplice were trying to burglarize.

On Dec. 6, 1991, Cleary and Kenneth Chandler knocked on the doors of several homes in the upper-class Maple Ridge neighborhood in Tulsa before ending up at the home of Richard Schafer, where Neafus was working.

The 2 men had intended to simply rob the house, according to court testimony, but a gun fell out of Chandler's coat and the situation quickly changed.

Cleary led Neafus around the house at gunpoint and finally shot her when she didn't have the combination to a basement safe, authorities have said. Neafus was found slumped over in a chair. She had been shot 5 times in the face, head and neck.

Neafus' purse and a cane that had been purchased at the Smithsonian Institution were the only items homeowners determined had been stolen.

Prosecutors claimed Cleary acted so Neafus could not identify him to police.

Public defenders had argued that Cleary was unable to make quick decisions properly because of childhood abuse and an accident in which he was hit by a car.

They claimed he should be given clemency because his trial attorney failed to present that evidence.

Cleary becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma, and the 71st overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Tyrone Peter Darks was put to death last month for the 1994 shooting death of his ex-wife, Sherry Goodlow. Hung Thanh Le is scheduled to die Feb. 26 and a March 9 execution is scheduled for David Jay Brown.

Cleary becomes the 13th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 898th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.