MCALESTER, Okla. (Reuters) — A man convicted of beating a 68-year-old Oklahoma woman and burning her alive was executed Thursday by lethal injection, an Oklahoma state prisons spokesman said.

Dion Athanasius Smallwood, 31, was pronounced dead four minutes after receiving the injection at a state prison here, Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie said.

Smallwood's is the 32nd execution since Oklahoma reinstated the death penalty in 1977 and resumed executions in 1990.

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