The Oklahoma Board of Pardon and Parole voted to recommend clemency for a death row prisoner who beat to death a friend and co-worker who refused to lend him money to buy cocaine.
The board voted to recommend clemency to the man who was sentenced to death for killing a man in 1997. Hale was beaten on the head with a hammer.
With any clemency recommendation, Stitt will meet with prosecutors, defense attorneys and the victim's family before he makes a decision.
Sometimes there isn't a question of guilt, but do they deserve mercy? Stitt told the AP. Those are difficult questions. How does mercy look? How does justice look? Once I have all the facts, I'll make that decision.
John O'Connor will oppose the recommendation.
An emotional Coddington apologized to the Hale family and told the board that he is a different man today.
I'm clean but I'm not. I'm not a bad person.
Coddington said before the vote that he would be okay if the vote ended with him on death row.
He lost his life because Hale tried to get him to stop using drugs.
The board was urged to reject the request by Hale's son and sister.
Give my dad justice and let my family know what happened. Carey said that James Coddington should be given the same sentence as his father.
Hale said that he let go of his hatred of Coddington.
Hale was killed to avoid going to prison, according to the assistant attorney general.
There will be no justice if Mr. Coddington is granted clemency.
The defense attorney told the panel that Coddington was impaired by years of alcohol and drug abuse that started when he was an infant and his father put beer and whiskey into his baby bottles.
Rolls said that the case exemplifies the circumstances for which clemency exists. The Board's recommendation should be adopted by Gov. Stitt.
After his initial sentence was thrown out, Coddington was sentenced to death twice.
Stitt is a Republican who is up for reelection this year. He approved one clemency request, that of Julius Jones, and rejected another, that of Bigler Stouffer, who was executed in December.
The first of six death row inmates will be put to death in August.
The chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty was surprised but pleased by the recommendation.
We want Gov. Stitt to watch the clemency hearing and allow James Coddington to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Problems in the death chambers in Oklahoma in the last two years led to a halt. The wrong lethal drug was delivered to the prison where Richard was to be put to death. The wrong drug was used to execute another man.
After a bungled execution in April of last year, the state's prisons chief ordered executions to be stopped.
There is a person with the name _____.
Sean Murphy is a reporter for the AP in Oklahoma City.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
