Thacker to be executed Tuesday for Okla. slaying

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing an Oklahoma woman in 1999 as part of a three-state killing spree is scheduled for execution.

Steven Ray Thacker is to be put to death at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester for the December 1999 killing of Laci Dawn Hill in Mayes County.

Thacker -- who waived his clemency hearing -- would be the first person executed in Oklahoma this year.

Prosecutors say Thacker killed Hill after answering a newspaper ad she and her husband had placed to sell a pool table -- then later killed Forrest Boyd in Missouri and Ray Patterson in Tennessee in the 10 days following Hill's slaying.

Thacker also faces a death penalty for the Tennessee slaying and life in prison in Missouri.