An Oklahoma prisoner used his last moments to forgive the state’s governor for denying him clemency earlier than 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 household and associates, legal professionals, everybody who’s been round me and cherished me, thanks,” Coddington stated. “Gov. Stitt, I don’t blame you and I forgive you.”
He then lifted his head and gave a last thumbs-up to his legal professional Emma Rolls, who silently sobbed within the witness room.
Coddington was injected with a deadly drug and pronounced useless at 10:16 a.m. — changing into the fifth Oklahoma inmate put to dying 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 dying 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 Metropolis.
Coddington apologized to Hale’s household and stated he was a distinct man right now after years of sobriety in emotional testimony at his clemency listening to this month earlier than Oklahoma’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board.
Albert Hale’s son Mitch Hale watched as Coddington was put to dying from the witness room Thursday and stated he doesn’t imagine he was actually remorseful.
“He proved right now it wasn’t real. He by no means apologized,” Hale stated. “He didn’t convey up my dad.”
Coddington didn't point out his sufferer throughout his final phrases.
“I forgive him, however that doesn’t launch him from the implications of his actions,” Hale added.
Throughout his clemency listening to, Coddington’s legal professional stated her consumer was doomed to a lifetime of habit from early childhood when his father crammed his child bottles with beer and whiskey.
Coddington’s dying sentence was initially overturned on attraction, however he was sentenced to dying a second time in 2008.
Prosecutors within the state legal professional basic’s workplace stated Coddington’s crimes warranted his execution.
“When the complete circumstances of the homicide, associated robberies, and in depth historical past of violence on Mr. Coddington’s half are thought of, one factor is obvious: dying is the one simply punishment for him,” they wrote to the Pardon and Parole Board.
Oklahoma halted executions in September 2015 after receiving the inaccurate 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 Publish wires
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