Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Oklahoma executes man

Oklahoma executes man

OKLAHOMA CITY- Oklahoma executed a man on Tuesday convicted of stabbing a woman to death in 1999 after he responded to her classified regarding a pool table and of killing two more people in nearby states as he fled authorities. Steven Ray Thacker, 42, was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Central time at Oklahoma State Prison in McAlester. He was the fifth person executed in the United States this year and the first in Oklahoma. Thacker, a laid-off plumber's helper at the time, kidnapped, raped and then murdered Laci Dawn Hill, 25, two days before Christmas in 1999. He had met her at her home in Bixby, Oklahoma, south of Tulsa when he answered her classified ad. Police said Thacker was broke and wanted money to buy Christmas presents for his wife and her two children. After Thacker was identified on a surveillance tape using Hill's debit card, he led authorities on a multi-state chase, fatally stabbing people in Missouri and Tennessee. Thacker stabbed Forrest Reed Boyd, 24, to de

Oklahoma executes man: Excuted today

A man convicted of committing three murders in three states during a 10-day rampage was executed Tuesday in Oklahoma for one of the murders, the 1999 death of a woman whose credit cards he used to buy Christmas presents for his family. Steven Ray Thacker, 42, used his final statement to apologize to his victims' families and friends, several of whom witnessed his execution from an adjacent room at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. "I don't deserve it, but as God has forgiven me, I hope you will forgive me for the pain I've caused," Thacker said while strapped to a hospital gurney. He then thanked his family and friends for their support, and added: "An eternity in heaven is mine." Thacker winked at his stepfather, Donald Johnston, who silently nodded back at him. Thacker then lay still, with his eyes closed and occasionally fluttering as if asleep. After two minutes, his breathing stilled and he didn't stir again. He was pronounced dead