Oklahoma executed a person Thursday for a 1997 killing, regardless of a suggestion from the state’s Pardon and Parole Board that his life be spared.
James Coddington, 50, acquired a lethal injection on the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced useless at 10:16 a.m. Gov. Kevin Stitt declined to commute Coddington’s sentence to life in jail with out parole and rejected his petition for clemency. Coddington was the fifth Oklahoma inmate to be put to demise for the reason that state resumed executions final 12 months.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections
Coddington was convicted and sentenced to die for beating 73-year-old Albert Hale to demise with a hammer. Prosecutors say Coddington, then 24, grew to become enraged when Hale refused to offer him cash to purchase cocaine.
During a clemency listening to this month earlier than the state’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board, an emotional Coddington, now 50, apologized to Hale’s household and mentioned he was a special man right this moment.
“I’m clean, I know God, I’m not … I’m not a vicious murderer,” Coddington informed the board. “If this ends today with my death sentence, OK.”
But Mitch Hale, Albert Hale’s son, urged the parole board to not suggest clemency, and mentioned this week he was relieved Stitt determined to let the execution go ahead.
“Our family can put this behind us after 25 years,” Hale, 64, mentioned. “No one is ever happy that someone’s dying, but (Coddington) chose this path … he knew what the consequences are, he rolled the dice and lost.”
Coddington’s lawyer, Emma Rolls, informed the panel that Coddington was impaired by years of alcohol and drug abuse that started as an toddler when his father put beer and whiskey into his child bottles.
The panel voted 3-2 to suggest clemency, though Hale’s household had urged in opposition to it. Stitt, a Republican, denied the parole board’s suggestion.
Coddington was twice sentenced to demise for Hale’s killing, the second time in 2008 after his preliminary sentence was overturned on attraction.
After killing Hale, Coddington dedicated at the very least six armed robberies at gasoline stations and comfort shops throughout Oklahoma City.
“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,” prosecutors within the state lawyer basic’s workplace wrote to the Pardon and Parole Board.
The state had halted executions in September 2015 when jail officers realized that they had acquired the improper lethal drug. It later got here to gentle that the identical improper drug had been used to execute an inmate, and executions within the state had been placed on maintain.
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