HARRISBURG — Gov. Ed Rendell has signed an execution warrant for Donald Tedford.

Tedford, 58, raped and killed a woman in Butler County while on work release from prison in 1986.

He was serving a sentence of 15 to 30 years at the State Correctional Facility at Greensburg for the 1972 assault of a woman with a baseball bat when he began a work release program in October 1985.

He met Jeanine Revak through his job at The Finishing Touch in Cranberry Township when she applied for a job there.

In January 1986, Tedford raped Revak and strangled her to death while on weekend work furlough.

A jury found Tedford guilty of first-degree murder and rape and sentenced him to death in February 1987.

The state Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence and denied reargument in 1989, and Tedford's Post-Conviction Relief Act petition was eventually denied in July 2004, with the Supreme Court affirming that decision in January 2009.

Tedford's execution by lethal injection is set for Sept. 24 at the State Correctional Institution at Greene.