Oklahoma Pardon & Parole Board Recommends Clemency For James Coddington

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3 to 2 to recommend clemency for death row inmate James Coddington.  

Coddington is convicted of killed 73-year-old Albert Hale of Choctaw with a hammer in 1997.  

Coddington spoke in the hearing Wednesday.  

“I can’t say it's wrong,” he said, referring to the death sentence. “All I can say is, I’ve done everything I could to ensure he didn’t die in vain. I have tried to be the best person I can be since the day that that happened.” 

Coddington’s attorney Emma Rolls is asking his death sentence to be commuted to life without parole.  

“As evidenced by his prison records, he is not a security risk behind bars. Instead, he is of service to his fellow prisoners and of the staff,” Rolls said.  

The victim’s family is still asking for the death sentence for all they’ve had to live without.  

“So that pony was one of the last memories I have, it was like the last gift given to me by my grandpa. But you know that memory is also representative of so many memories I never had because of the man that Mr. Coddington took,” said Hale’s grandson Michael Hale.  

Albert Hale was a Navy veteran, who was working with Coddington at the time of his death.  

Codding hit him with a hammer in the head after Hale refused to give him money.  

Decades later, Coddington’s execution has been set for August 25.  

Attorney General John O’Connor said in a statement Wednesday he was disappointed by the vote.  

The governor is expected to release his decision to accept or deny the board’s recommendations before the scheduled execution.