diff --git a/src/windows/native/sun/windows/awt_Component.cpp b/src/windows/native/sun/windows/awt_Component.cpp
index 5bd7bf4e5f4427b0d6a336f8b3c4f4b2d08b57ae..3baae0f6d931baf3c566a80c8df22399500c5bc1 100644
--- a/src/windows/native/sun/windows/awt_Component.cpp
+++ b/src/windows/native/sun/windows/awt_Component.cpp
@@ -3955,7 +3955,6 @@ void AwtComponent::SendInputMethodEvent(jint id, jstring text,
         DASSERT(stringCls);
         CHECK_NULL(stringCls);
         clauseReading = env->NewObjectArray(cClause, stringCls, NULL);
-        env->DeleteLocalRef(stringCls);
         DASSERT(clauseReading);
         CHECK_NULL(clauseReading);
         for (int i=0; i<cClause; i++)   env->SetObjectArrayElement(clauseReading, i, rgClauseReading[i]);