James Coddington, 50, was executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, despite a recommendation by the state Board of Pardons and Paroles that his life be spared. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt refused to commute Coddington’s sentence to life without parole and refused to pardon him. Coddington – who was convicted of a murder in 1997 – said he forgave Stitt with his final words while tied to a sump inside the execution chamber. “To all my family and friends, the lawyers, everyone who was around me and loved me, thank you,” Coddington said. “Government Stit, I don’t blame you and I forgive you.” Demonstrators held signs outside the Governor’s mansion in protest of the execution. AP He then raised his head and gave a final thumbs-up to his lawyer Emma Rawls, who was quietly sobbing in the witness box. Coddington was injected with a lethal drug and pronounced dead at 10:16 a.m. – became the fifth Oklahoma inmate to be put to death since the state resumed executions last year. He had been convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 73-year-old Albert Hale. Aged 24, Coddington beat Hale to death with a hammer when the septuagenarian refused to give him money to feed his cocaine addiction. After killing Hale, he committed at least six armed robberies at gas stations and convenience stores throughout Oklahoma City. Despite the protester’s best efforts, James Coddington was killed last Thursday. AP Coddington apologized to Hale’s family and said he was a different man today after years of sobriety in emotional testimony at his clemency hearing this month before the five-member Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Paroles. Albert Hale’s son, Mitch Hale, watched Coddington be executed from the witness stand Thursday and said he did not believe he was truly remorseful. “He proved today that he was not genuine. He never apologized,” Hale said. “She didn’t raise my dad.” Coddington did not mention his victim during his final words. “I forgive him, but that doesn’t absolve him of the consequences of his actions,” Hale added. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt. The governor rejected James Coddington’s request for clemency.Getty Images During the leniency hearing, Coddington’s lawyer said her client had been condemned to a life of addiction from an early age when his father filled his baby bottles with beer and whiskey. Coddington’s death sentence was initially overturned on appeal, but he was sentenced to death a second time in 2008. Prosecutors in the state attorney general’s office said Coddington’s crimes warranted his execution. “When the full circumstances of the murder, the associated robberies and the 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 Board of Pardons and Pardons. Oklahoma halted executions in September 2015 after receiving the wrong lethal drug from suppliers that did not match state protocols for execution procedures. After an investigation into the conversion, the state resumed executions last year. With Post cables
