Jeffrey Scott Wagner
Linn County - Oregon
Born: 12/4/60
Sentenced to death: 2/28/1986
Wagner pleaded guilty to the 1985 strangling of his 23-year-old
girlfriend, Jeri Koenig, during a fight over the breakup of their
relationship.
He was the first person sentenced to death in Oregon following the
reinstatement of capital punishment, but the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989
overturned his sentence because jurors were not allowed to consider
evidence that might cause them to spare his life. The ruling sent nearly
two dozen Oregon Death Row inmates back for resentencing.
Interesting fact: Wagner used a papier-mache dummy in his cell in
1992 to trick prison officials while he hid for two days in the back of
a truck that eventually took him out of the Oregon State Penitentiary.
Salem police later arrested him trying to rob a sex video arcade.
Status: Life sentence.
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