Susan Smith-Harmon
Steven Ray Thacker to be put to death Tuesday - first OK execution this year
Monday, 11 March 2013 01:12 Published in National NewsSteven 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.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Historic Preservation Commission in Wildwood is considering whether to recommend a name change.
Residents who live along the road complain that the name tends to offend people. Opponents say residents are trying to sanitize history.
Spanning just six-tenths of a mile, the private street used to be the main road to a planation home and runs past a historic slave cemetery.
Historic Preservation Commission chairman Lynne Martin says the current name dates only from about 1979, when a developer platted the subdivision along the road.
Most of the property owners are recommending renaming it Elijah Madison Lane to recognize a former slave who fought in the Civil War.
Branson police investigate 2 deaths at motel - possible murder/suicide
Monday, 11 March 2013 00:49 Published in Local NewsCity spokesman Garrett Anderson says the deaths likely happened around 11 p.m. Saturday night at the Queen Anne I motel. The Springfield News-Leader reports that the names of the victims weren't immediately released, pending notification of relatives.
Anderson says he can't provide details. Branson police will have a press conference Monday.
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