Oklahoma Executes US Man For Violent Murder Committed 25 Years Ago - Witnesses

The US state of Oklahoma executed James Coddington for the violent killing of an elderly man in 1997 after the governor refused his petition for clemency, media witnesses said on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2022) The US state of Oklahoma executed James Coddington for the violent killing of an elderly man in 1997 after the governor refused his petition for clemency, media witnesses said on Thursday.

Activists groups such as the Death Penalty Information Center have accused the state of Oklahoma of botching executions in 2021, 2015 and 2014, claiming they caused excessive suffering in violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban against cruel and unusual punishment. In 2021, Oklahoma death row inmate John Grant convulsed about two dozens times and vomited on himself when he was executed via lethal injection.

Coddington was sentenced to death for the murder of 73-year-old Albert Hale in 1997. According to prosecutors, he beat the man to death with a hammer after becoming enraged when the elderly man refused to give him money to buy cocaine.

The execution of Coddington was conducted by injection of a lethal drug and began around 10:00 a.m. CST (15:00 GMT) at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

"Doctor entered at 10:15 (a.m.), checked for a heartbeat and flashed the light in his eyes and then (Oklahoma Department of Corrections) Director (Scott) Crow came in and pronounced him dead (at) 10:16," a media witness said during a press briefing.

Another media witness said Coddington did not express any remorse about the crime in his final statement before the execution.

"He proved today that it (remorse) wasn't genuine. I mean, in his final statement, he thanked his girlfriend and his attorneys, but he never apologized. He never mentioned my dad. He never mentioned my family. So, there was no true remorse," Mitch Hale, Albert Hale's son, said.

Coddington was executed despite the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole board's recommendation to commute the death penalty to life in prison.

Oklahoma authorities intend to execute 24 more death row inmates before December 2024 after the US state resumed executions last year.