Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Recommends Clemency for James Coddington

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has advisable clemency for James Coddington (pictured at his clemency listening to), the primary of 25 death-row prisoners scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma between August 2022 and December 2024.

In a 3-2 vote on August 3, 2022, the Board advisable that Coddington’s loss of life sentence be diminished to life with out the potential for parole. Gubernatorial appointee Ed Konieczny, Oklahoma Court docket of Felony Appeals appointee Larry Morris, and Oklahoma Supreme Court docket appointee Richard Smothermon voted sure. Gubernatorial appointees Scott Williams and Cathy Stockler voted no.

Coddington was convicted and sentenced to loss of life for the addiction-driven homicide of his buddy, Albert Hale. In an emotional five-minute presentation to the board, Coddington stated “I can’t apologize sufficient for what I did.”

Hale, Coddington stated, “was certainly one of my pals, and he tried his finest to assist me, … and for that, he misplaced his life.” Coddington stated he’s not the one that killed Hale. “I’m clear, I do know God, I’m not … I’m not a vicious assassin.” Accepting accountability for his motion, he stated, “If this ends with my loss of life, I can’t say it’s improper.”

Hale’s household opposes the grant of clemency. His son Mitch advised the board, “I’m right here to say that I forgive James Coddington, however my forgiveness doesn’t launch him from the results of his actions.”

The advice now goes to Governor Kevin Stitt, who can settle for, reject, or modify the Board’s advice.

Along with his private assertion on the listening to, Coddington’s attorneys introduced proof of his good conduct in jail and the work he has achieved to redeem himself throughout his almost 20 years on loss of life row. The petition garnered help from jail employees, notably former Oklahoma Division of Corrections Director Justin Jones.

Coddington’s clemency counsel additionally introduced proof of his diminished culpability for his crime. The attorneys argued that Coddington killed Hale within the midst of a drug binge that put him in a psychological state that made it unattainable for him to type the requisite intent for first diploma homicide. Nevertheless, his counsel stated, the jury by no means heard important proof concerning his psychological state as a result of the trial courtroom excluded professional evaluations explaining Coddington’s drug-induced psychosis. On enchantment, courts agreed that the exclusion of this proof was constitutional error, however the federal courts deferred to state courtroom rulings that the violation was in the end “innocent.”

Coddington additionally introduced intensive proof of his traumatic and abusive childhood. Coddington’s mom was imprisoned when he was a toddler, leaving Coddington to be raised by an alcoholic and drug-addicted father who put alcohol in his child bottles. Coddington started abusing medication as a baby and battled his dependancy for years till he was convicted of Hale’s homicide on the age of 24.

In a press launch, Coddington’s legal professional, Federal Public Defender Emma Rolls, stated: “By voting to commute James Coddington’s loss of life sentence, the Board has acknowledged that his case exemplifies the circumstances for which clemency exists.”

The clemency request is now despatched to Governor Kevin Stitt. In a press release launched by the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Demise Penalty launched, Reverend Don Heath, Chair of the Coalition stated that “James’ life is now in Governor Stitts’ arms.” “We ask Gov. Stitt to learn the clemency packet, to observe the clemency listening to as we speak and to look to his personal religion to resolve when mercy and forgiveness is suitable and we hope that he’ll permit James Coddington to spend the remainder of his pure life behind bars,” Rev. Heath added.

In a Twitter thread, Adam Luck, the previous Chair of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, stated he hoped that the Board’s advice in Coddington’s case isn’t a “meaningless step on the inevitable path to loss of life.” Governor Stitt pressured Luck to resign from the Board in January 2022 due to Luck’s votes in favor of clemency for death-row prisoners.

Luck tweeted that the clemency course of is the final step in making certain equity, so “[w]e ought to deal with this end result as sacred.” “If we ignore this advice, we acknowledge the looks of equity and due course of the clemency hearings present make us really feel higher however do nothing to sway us from what we wish: vengeance loss of life, and what we name justice,” he added.

Stitt appointed Konieczny, a former police officer and Episcopal bishop, to the Board in January 2022 as Luck’s alternative.

Coddington is scheduled to be executed on August 25, 2022, the primary of a greater than two-year, almost one-per-month execution schedule. If the executions are all carried out, 58% of all death-row prisoners within the state could be put to loss of life.