An Oklahoma prisoner used his remaining moments to forgive the state’s governor for denying him clemency before he was executed by deadly injection Thursday.
James Coddington, 50, was executed on the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, regardless of a advice from the state Pardon and Parole Board that his life be spared.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt declined to commute Coddington’s life sentence with out parole and declined to grant him clemency.
Coddington — who was convicted of a 1997 homicide — stated he forgave Stitt in his final phrases whereas strapped to a gurney contained in the execution room.
“To all my family and friends, lawyers, everyone who’s been around me and loved me, thank you,” Coddington stated. “Gov. Stitt, I don’t blame you and I forgive you.”
He then lifted his head and gave a remaining thumbs-up to his legal professional Emma Rolls, who silently sobbed within the witness room.
Coddington was injected with a deadly drug and pronounced lifeless at 10:16 a.m. — changing into the fifth Oklahoma inmate put to loss of life because the state resumed executions final yr.
He had been convicted and sentenced to die for the homicide of 73-year-old Albert Hale.
At 24 years previous, Coddington beat Hale to loss of life with a hammer when the septuagenarian refused to provide him cash to feed his cocaine habit.
After killing Hale, he dedicated no less than six armed robberies at gasoline stations and comfort shops throughout Oklahoma City.
Coddington apologized to Hale’s household and stated he was a unique man at present after years of sobriety in emotional testimony at his clemency listening to this month before Oklahoma’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board.
Albert Hale’s son Mitch Hale watched as Coddington was put to loss of life from the witness room Thursday and stated he doesn’t consider he was really remorseful.
“He proved today it wasn’t genuine. He never apologized,” Hale stated. “He didn’t bring up my dad.”
Coddington didn’t point out his sufferer throughout his final phrases.
“I forgive him, but that doesn’t release him from the consequences of his actions,” Hale added.
During his clemency listening to, Coddington’s legal professional stated her shopper was doomed to a lifetime of habit from early childhood when his father crammed his child bottles with beer and whiskey.
Coddington’s loss of life sentence was initially overturned on enchantment, however he was sentenced to loss of life a second time in 2008.
Prosecutors within the state legal professional normal’s workplace stated Coddington’s crimes warranted his execution.
“When the full circumstances of the murder, related robberies, and extensive history of violence on Mr. Coddington’s part are considered, one thing is clear: death is the only just punishment for him,” they wrote to the Pardon and Parole Board.
Oklahoma halted executions in September 2015 after receiving the wrong deadly drug from suppliers that didn’t match state protocols for execution proceedings. After an investigation into the switch-up, the state resumed executions final yr.
With Post wires
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