Texan First ’88 Execution

An oil derrick worker with a ninth-grade education became the first person executed in the United States this year when he was put to death early today for murdering a woman during a $1 robbery.

Robert Streetman, 27, was pronounced dead at 3:26 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection. It was the 94th execution since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976. Streetman was condemned for the Dec. 17, 1982, slaying of Christine Baker, 44, who was shot as she sat knitting and watching television in her farmhouse.