Entries tagged with “James Coddington”
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Sep 22, 2022
Lawyers for Mentally Ill Oklahoma Death-Row Prisoner Seek Clemency, Competency Trial
Lawyers for Oklahoma death-row prisoner Benjamin Cole have filed a petition with the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole asking the Board to recommend to Governor Kevin Stitt that Cole’s sentence be commuted to life without parole. The petition, submitted to the board on September 16, 2022, states that “Benjamin Cole today is a frail, 57-year-old man with a damaged and deteriorating brain, suffering from progressive and severe mental illness who poses no threat to anyone in any way.” Cole…
Research
Religion
,New Voices
,Upcoming Executions
,Aug 23, 2022
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…
Research
Upcoming Executions
,Aug 05, 2022
Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole Recommends Clemency for James Coddington
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has recommended clemency for James Coddington (pictured at his clemency hearing), the first 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 recommended that Coddington’s death sentence be reduced to life without the possibility of parole. Gubernatorial appointee Ed Konieczny, Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals appointee Larry Morris, and Oklahoma Supreme Court…
Research
Upcoming Executions
,Jul 22, 2022
Oklahoma Death-Row Prisoner James Coddington Asks Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole to Commute Sentence
Lawyers for James Coddington (pictured), the first person scheduled to be executed as part of Oklahoma’s two-year execution spree, are seeking clemency for a man they say “exemplifies the principles of redemption.” In a petition filed July 15, 2022, they ask the Oklahoma Pardons and Parole Board to commute Coddington’s death sentence to life without parole, describing Coddington’s sincere remorse and exemplary behavioral record on death row. The petition asks the Board to commute Coddington’s…
Executions
Upcoming Executions
,Jun 13, 2022
Oklahoma Attorney General Requests 25 Execution Dates Despite Independent Investigation and Claims of Innocence, Serious Mental Illness, and Brain Damage
Oklahoma state prosecutors are pushing to schedule 25 executions over approximately two years, after a federal judge denied death-row prisoners’ challenge to the state’s controversial lethal-injection protocol. On June 10, 2022, Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set execution dates for 25 of the 28 prisoners who were parties to the execution-protocol challenge. The request came just four days after Judge Stephen Friot’s ruling that the…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Feb 18, 2022
Oklahoma County Becomes Nation’s Third Most Prolific County Executioner as State Puts Intellectually Impaired Teen Offender to Death
When Oklahoma executed Gilbert Postelle on February 17, 2022, it came with a dubious distinction. The intellectually impaired man who was 18 years old at the time of his offense became the 44th person prosecuted in Oklahoma County to be put to death since executions resumed in the U.S. in 1977. His death made the county the nation’s third-most prolific county executioner over the past half-century, tied with Tarrant and Bexar counties in Texas. (Click to enlarge graphic.) Postelle was the…
Executions
Feb 10, 2022
Oklahoma is Paying Execution Doctor $15,000 Plus Training Fees for Each Execution
Oklahoma is paying $15,000 per execution, plus $1,000 for each day of training, to an unnamed doctor to participate in the process of putting state prisoners to death. Under the agreement, the doctor stood to receive an estimated $130,000 over the course of the 19-week-period between October 28, 2021 and March 10, 2022 in which the state had scheduled the executions of seven prisoners. The payments were disclosed by Oklahoma prison officials during federal court hearings in January 2022 on…
Executions
Upcoming Executions
,Dec 26, 2021
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…
Research
Upcoming Executions
,Botched Executions
,Dec 07, 2021
Oklahoma Executes Bigler Stouffer After Governor Rejects Board Recommendation for Clemency, Federal Courts Deny Stay
Oklahoma executed Bigler Jobe Stouffer II (pictured, at his clemency hearing) on December 9, 2021, after Governor Kevin Stitt rejecting a pardons board recommendation to commute his sentence to life without parole and the federal courts denied his applications to stay his execution. Stouffer, 79, was the oldest prisoner put to death in Oklahoma. It was the eleventh and final execution of 2021. On November 17, 2021, the Oklahoma Pardons and Parole board voted 3 – 2 to recommend clemency for…
Executions
Upcoming Executions
,Oct 18, 2021
Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Oklahoma Death-Row Prisoners to Lawsuit in Decision That May Require State to Vacate Execution Dates
In a decision with potential to vacate a number of Oklahoma execution dates, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has held that a lower federal court abused its discretion in dismissing six death-row prisoners from a lawsuit challenging the state’s execution protocol. The appeals court decision, issued on October 15, 2021, said that a ruling by Judge Stephen Friot of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma that six death-row prisoners who had not designated an…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Sep 21, 2021
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Sets Seven Execution Dates
After more than six years with no executions and with a trial pending on the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection process, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has issued death warrants setting seven execution dates in a less than five-month period between late October 2021 and mid-March 2022. The death warrants were issued September 20, 2021, 25 days after Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor filed and then revised a motion requesting the execution dates and 40 days after…