Oklahoma executes James Coddington for 1997 hammer killing

By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma has executed a man for a 1997 killing despite a recommendation from the state’s Pardon and Parole Board that his life be spared. Fifty-year-old James Coddington received a lethal injection on Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was pronounced dead at 10:16 a.m. Gov. Kevin Stitt rejected Coddington’s clemency petition and declined to commute Coddington’s sentence to life in prison without parole. Coddington was convicted and sentenced to die for beating 73-year-old Albert Hale to death with a hammer. Prosecutors say Coddington, then 24, became enraged when Hale refused to give him money to buy cocaine.