‘HE NEVER APOLOGIZED’

Oklahoma Executes Inmate After Parole Board Recommends Clemency

The Oklahoma governor rejected a petition for clemency for James Coddington and declined to commute his sentence.

James Coddington was pronounced dead Thursday after he was executed by lethal injection at 10:16 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, despite a recommendation by the state’s Pardon and Parole Board that he be spared. Coddington received the death sentence after he was convicted for the brutal murder of his coworker, 73-year-old Albert Hale, in 1997. At 24-years-old and in a cocaine-induced rage, Coddington beat Hale with a hammer after the man refused to give him money for more drugs. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt rejected a petition for clemency for Coddington on Wednesday and declined to commute his sentence, solidifying his trip to the chamber. At Coddington’s early August parole hearing, the killer showed remorse for murdering Hale, but his son, Mitch Hale, who attended the execution, didn’t believe it. “He proved today it wasn’t genuine. He never apologized,” Hale said of the man’s last words in an interview with the AP. “He didn’t bring up my dad.” Coddington is the fifth inmate Oklahoma has executed since reinstating the policy last year. In July, the state said it plans to execute an inmate every four weeks through 2024, starting Aug. 25, according to Oklahoma Watch.