Ohio carried out the nation's 999th execution since 1977 on Tuesday. The macabre milestone of 1000 is scheduled for later in the week with another execution.

John Hicks, 49, was put to death a day after Eric Nance was executed in Arkansas for killing a teenager by slicing her throat with a box cutter.

Hicks, who at the time was high on cocaine, killed his mother-in-law to steal her money so he could buy his VCR back from his dealer.

He returned the next day and suffocated his 5-year-old stepdaughter with duct tape over her mouth and nose, so she couldn't tell police he had been at the mother-in-law's apartment.

The 1,000th execution since the death penalty was reinstated is likely to come as soon as Wednesday, when Robin Lovitt is slated to be put to death to die in Virginia for fatally stabbing a man.

On Monday, Gov. Bob Taft had refused to commute Hicks' sentence from death to life in prison. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati and the U.S. Supreme Court also turned down last-minute appeals.

Hicks was the 19th person executed in Ohio since the state resumed executions in 1999.