Oklahoma Federal Court Stays Execution of James Coddington

James Coddington, the last of the sev­en death-row pris­on­ers sched­uled to be put to death in Oklahoma​’s five-month exe­cu­tion spree, has received a stay of execution. 

On December 23, 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Friot, who is pre­sid­ing over a chal­lenge brought by Oklahoma death-row pris­on­ers to the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s lethal-injec­tion pro­to­col, stayed Coddington’s March 10, 2022 exe­cu­tion date ​“until a final judg­ment on Mr. Coddington’s claims in this case has been entered by this Court.” The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office con­sent­ed to the stay.

On August 11, 2021, Judge Friot ordered a tri­al in the prisoner’s law­suit, sched­uled to begin in late February 2022. At the same time, he dis­missed six pris­on­ers — includ­ing Coddington — from the law­suit, say­ing they could not pre­vail on their con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenges because they had not des­ig­nat­ed an alter­na­tive method by which they could be exe­cut­ed. Although then-Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter had assured the court the state would not seek exe­cu­tion dates while the law­suit remained unre­solved, his suc­ces­sor, John O’Connor, dis­re­gard­ed that rep­re­sen­ta­tion and sought death war­rants against the six and a sev­enth pris­on­er who was not a par­ty to the lethal-injection challenge.

Later, on October 12, 2021, Friot rein­stat­ed Coddington as a par­ty to the law­suit, find­ing ​“cred­i­ble cor­rob­o­ra­tion from an inde­pen­dent evi­den­tiary source” that Coddington mis­tak­en­ly believed that ​“he had already effec­tive­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ed his choice of a fir­ing squad” as his ​“alter­na­tive method of execution.”

Citing ​“the unique cir­cum­stances of this sit­u­a­tion,” Coddington’s lawyers and the Oklahoma attor­ney general’s office stip­u­lat­ed that Coddington’s exe­cu­tion should be stayed.