OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday rejected clemency for a man facing execution this week for the 1997 hammer killing of a Choctaw man, despite a recommendation from the state’s Pardon and Parole Board that his life be spared.
James Coddington was convicted and sentenced to die for the beating death of his friend and coworker, 73-year-old Albert Hale, inside Hale’s Choctaw home. Prosecutors say Coddington, who was 24 at the time, became enraged when Hale refused to give him money to buy cocaine.
Coddington’s execution is scheduled for Thursday morning.
“After thoroughly reviewing arguments and evidence presented by all sides of the case, Governor Kevin Stitt has denied the Pardon and Parole Board’s clemency recommendation for James Allen Coddington,” Stitt’s office said in a statement.
During a clemency hearing this month before the state’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board, an emotional Coddington, now 50, apologized to Hale’s family and said he is a different man today.
“I’m clean, I know God, I’m not … I’m not a vicious murderer,” Coddington told the board. “If this ends today with my death sentence, OK.”
Mitch Hale, Albert Hale’s son who had urged the parole board not to recommend clemency, said he feels a sense of relief with Stitt’s decision.
“Our family can put this behind us after 25 years,” Hale, 64, said. “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.”
Hale said he, his wife, goddaughter and a friend were en route to McAlester to attend the execution.
Coddington’s attorney, Emma Rolls, told the panel that Coddington was impaired by years of alcohol and drug abuse that began when he was an infant and his father put beer and whiskey into his baby bottles.
Rolls said Coddington doesn’t have any pending appeals that would delay or stop his execution on Thursday.
“While we are profoundly disheartened by this decision, we appreciate the pardons board’s careful consideration of James Coddington’s life and case, Rolls said in a statement following Stitt’s announcement.
“The Board’s clemency recommendation acknowledged James’s sincere remorse and meaningful transformation during his years on death row,” Rolls said.
The Rev. Don Heath, chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said “there is no mercy or forgiveness” in Stitt’s heart.
“I am…
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