A federal judge granted a stay of execution to James Coddington, reinstating him as a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s three-drug lethal injection process.
The lawsuit claims the state’s injection protocol violates the Eighth Amendment, which protects against “cruel and unusual punishment.” The case will proceed to trial in February.
While Coddington was originally one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, he was removed because he had not selected an alternate execution method. Once Coddington’s attorneys showed U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot that Coddington had chosen a firing squad as his alternate method, Friot reinstated him.
Now that Coddington is reinstated, the execution will be stayed until his part in the lawsuit is resolved. The Oklahoman reported that Friot said the federal court has until March 10—Coddington’s original execution date—to make a decision regarding the inmate’s claims in the lawsuit.
Coddington received the death penalty for bludgeoning his coworker Alan Hale to death with a hammer in March 1997. According to prosecutors, Coddington killed Hale after he refused to give Coddington $50 for drugs.
The three drugs used in Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol are midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. After the state announced last year it would resume executions using these drugs, 32 death row inmates sued, claiming the drugs would cause an unconstitutional level of pain.
Firing squad is one of several authorized execution methods under Oklahoma law, along with lethal injection, electrocution and nitrogen hypoxia. Lethal injection has been the only method used in Oklahoma since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.
Coddington’s public defender declined to comment on the judge’s order, and a spokeswoman for Attorney General John O’Connor didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
States and the federal government carried out 11 executions this year, the fewest since 1988, as support for the death penalty has continued to decline, according to an annual report on the death penalty released earlier this month. Texas executed three inmates and Oklahoma two in 2021. Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri each executed one, and the Trump administration executed three.
Oklahoma once had one of the nation’s busiest death chambers, but a temporary moratorium on capital punishment was put in place in 2015 following three consecutive flawed executions.
Oklahoma resumed executions in October with the lethal injection of John Marion Grant, who convulsed and vomited on the gurney after the first drug, the sedative midazolam, was administered.
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Original Article: James Coddington, Oklahoma Inmate Who Chose Death By Firing Squad, Gets Stay of Execution (msn.com)
They can shoot him and save on the chemicals and be done with it. I would like to have a shot at him just pay for the rounds.
Who cares if they suffer? They SHOULD suffer just like the victim(s) did. He should be bludgeoned to death with a hammer as he did to his victim. What about how the loved ones of the victims are suffering for life? People care too much about these worthless, evil animals. Forget this whole 3 drug execution stuff. Go a cheaper route. Inject them with enough morphine, heroin or fentanyl to od. Better yet, take them into an operating room, knock them out for surgery and just harvest their organs so othersvcan live. They can repent for their crimes bygiving some others a new lease on life.