A death row inmate in Oklahoma surprised onlookers Thursday when he used his last moments on Earth to forgive the state’s governor for not granting him clemency.
James Coddington, 50, was executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester via lethal injection, according to a report.
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Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board had recommended that Coddington be spared, but Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt ignored the recommendation. He neither commuted Coddington’s life sentence nor grant the convicted murderer clemency.
“To all my family and friends, lawyers, everyone who’s been around me and loved me, thank you,” Coddington said while strapped to the execution gurney. “Gov. Stitt, I don’t blame you and I forgive you.”
Following the statement, he gave his attorney a thumbs-up, and the state pronounced him dead at 10:16 a.m.
Coddington had been sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of 73-year-old Albert Hale.
He was 24 years old at the time, and he beat the elderly man to death with a hammer for not giving him money to fuel his cocaine addiction, the report noted.
Coddington apologized, but Mitch Hale, the victim’s son, said he did not believe that he was truly remorseful.
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Hale was in the room at the time of the execution.
“He proved today it wasn’t genuine. He never apologized,” Hale said. “He didn’t bring up my dad. I forgive him, but that doesn’t release him from the consequences of his actions.”
