Oklahoma Executes James Coddington As Prison Director, House Speaker Call for Clemency and Faith Leaders Urge Halt to Scheduled 25-Prisoner Execution ​‘Blood Bath’

Oklahoma exe­cut­ed James Coddington (pic­tured, right, at his clemen­cy hear­ing) on August 25, 2022, after Governor Kevin Stitt reject­ed the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board’s rec­om­men­da­tion of clemen­cy, green­light­ing the start of what one faith leader described as a 25-pris­on­er ​“blood­bath.” Stitt’s denial of clemen­cy came as lead­ers across Oklahoma had been urg­ing the gov­er­nor to com­mute Coddington’s sen­tence. Former Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC) direc­tor Justin Jones and for­mer Republican Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives Kris Steele had asked Stitt to spare Coddington’s life, while a coali­tion of faith lead­ers voiced oppo­si­tion to the state’s unprece­dent­ed execution schedule.

Jones, who over­saw 28 exe­cu­tions dur­ing his tenure as ODOC direc­tor from 2005 to 2013, sub­mit­ted an affi­davit in sup­port of Coddington’s clemen­cy peti­tion. In an August 22, 2022 op-ed in The Oklahoman, Jones called Coddington’s time on death row ​“a sto­ry … of a remark­able trans­for­ma­tion.” Citing his own ​“thor­ough review” of Coddington’s prison records, Jones said he was ​“firm­ly con­vinced that Coddington is a per­son who makes his prison com­mu­ni­ty a bet­ter-func­tion­ing place for both cor­rec­tion­al staff and oth­er pris­on­ers. … It would not be in the best inter­ests of the state of Oklahoma to exe­cute some­one who man­i­fests such redemption.” 

“[E]xecuting Coddington,” Jones said, ​“would be a griev­ous waste, a refusal to acknowl­edge the work he has done to trans­form him­self and to be the best per­son he can behind bars.”

The same day, Steele, a for­mer Republican state rep­re­sen­ta­tive who served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, sent a let­ter to Stitt urg­ing clemen­cy. Coddington, Steele wrote, ​“is indis­putably a changed man from the des­per­ate young drug addict who took Albert Hale’s life 25 years ago.” ​“In the time he has spent on death row,” Steele said, ​“Mr. Coddington has embraced trans­for­ma­tion by ded­i­cat­ing him­self to being the best per­son pos­si­ble. His remorse and com­mit­ment to pos­i­tive change have been rec­og­nized as sin­cere and deep by cor­rec­tions staff. … We should not dis­card some­one whose life can con­tribute to improv­ing the sit­u­a­tion for others.”

A coali­tion of faith lead­ers also joined the calls for clemen­cy. At a joint webi­nar, Disciples of Christ min­is­ter Cece Jones-Davis and Catholic priest Tim Luschen urged Oklahoma to refrain from mov­ing for­ward with its plan to exe­cute 25 peo­ple — more than half the state’s death row — over the next two-and-a-half years. Jones-Davis, who spear­head­ed the suc­cess­ful clemen­cy cam­paign for for­mer death-row pris­on­er Julius Jones, said, ​“Time is of the essence, and if we don’t engage — if Oklahomans don’t engage — it’s going to be a blood bath. There will be so much blood on our hands and God will not be pleased.” 

Jones-Davis ref­er­enced the find­ings of the bipar­ti­san Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, not­ing the state’s fail­ure to imple­ment any of the commission’s 46 rec­om­men­da­tions for reform. ​“How in the world can we have botched exe­cu­tions, put togeth­er a team of pro­fes­sion­al peo­ple to look at all the prob­lems and then just car­ry on as nor­mal and exe­cute 25 peo­ple?” she asked.

Luschen, pas­tor of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Oklahoma City, spoke about the inequities and prob­lems with the death penal­ty sys­tem, and root­ed his oppo­si­tion in his faith. ​“If we tru­ly believe in a mer­ci­ful God, it does not seem we are reflect­ing that if we are call­ing for puni­tive mea­sures against peo­ple for pur­pos­es of revenge,” he said. He empha­sized the human­i­ty of peo­ple on death row, say­ing, ​“No longer see them as pris­on­ers in cells, but as someone’s father, son, moth­er or daugh­ter and that we are to accom­pa­ny them on this jour­ney. If we begin to know these peo­ple as human beings, then per­haps it soft­ens our hearts a little bit.”

Catholic Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City also had urged Governor Stitt to com­mute Coddington’s death sen­tence. ​“Executions per­pet­u­ate cycles of vio­lence and pro­vide no oppor­tu­ni­ty of heal­ing for vic­tims’ fam­i­lies,” Archbishop Coakley said. ​“We are remind­ed that our Lord declared as blessed those who are mer­ci­ful, ​‘for they shall receive mer­cy.’ I call on Gov. Stitt to affirm the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Pardon and Parole Board for clemen­cy for James Coddington.”

The Oklahoma exe­cu­tion sched­ule has caused some to voice con­cerns about the state’s entire death penal­ty sys­tem. In an inter­view with Public Radio Tulsa, Jones said that his expe­ri­ence with the death penal­ty showed him it wasn’t admin­is­tered fair­ly. ​“It real­ly comes down to what coun­ty did you com­mit your crime in, who pros­e­cut­ed you, and whether or not the vic­tims in any par­tic­u­lar case were adamant that the defen­dant receive the death penal­ty,” he said. 

Coddington, Jones observed, has shown he can be a pos­i­tive influ­ence in the lives of oth­er pris­on­ers if Stitt spares his life. ​“He’s going to have an influ­ence at his age and his expe­ri­ence and what I believe is his com­mit­ment to be pro­duc­tive no mat­ter what sit­u­a­tion is before him,” Jones said. ​“It takes inmates like him to real­ly bal­ance out and be men­tors to younger inmates who prob­a­bly will get out at some point.”

[This post was updat­ed to reflect that Oklahoma exe­cut­ed James Coddington on August 25, 2022.]