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Dear friends:
While I am tucked away in Montana in the very first stages of writing my next book (more about it in a future newsletter), the state of Oklahoma is embarking on a killing spree. Attorney General, John O'Connor, asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals for approval to set the execution dates of 25 men incarcerated on death row at McAlester, the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. The court granted O'Connor's request and his desire that "as many executions possible are set four weeks apart." And so begins a gruesome monthly ritual.
Each man will have a clemency hearing before the Pardon and Parole Board. The Pardon Board's recommendations then go to Governor Stitt, who has the choice to abide by that recommendation or reject it. As governor, he literally has power over life and death.
We will be putting a spotlight on Oklahoma in the coming months. The state has a gruesome history of botched executions, and a history, too, of covering up mistakes and trying to keep its execution process as hidden as possible. We will do our best to ensure that the world knows what Oklahoma is doing to its citizens.
We won't get the chance to write about each of the men whose lives are at stake in this newsletter, but we will be closely monitoring everything on my Twitter feed and in my Facebook posts. Below, you can learn something about James Coddington, the first man Oklahoma plans to kill.
Second on the list will be a name familiar to many of you: Richard Glossip. We still have hopes that Richard will be saved. A group of Republicans, all who favor the death penalty, are united in their belief in Richard's innocence and are working alongside his lawyers to get him a reprieve.
From the heart,
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Timeline for Oklahoma Executions
| 1. James Coddington |
August 25 |
2022 |
| 2. Richard Glossip |
September 22 |
2022 |
| 3. Benjamin Cole |
October 20 |
2022 |
| 4. Richard Fairchild |
November 17 |
2022 |
| 5. John Hanson |
December 15 |
2022 |
| 6. Scott Eizember |
January 12 |
2023 |
| 7. Jermaine Cannon |
March 9 |
2023 |
| 8. Anthony Sanchez |
April 6 |
2023 |
| 9. Phillip Hancock |
May 4 |
2023 |
| 10. James Ryder |
June 1 |
2023 |
| 11. Michael Smith |
July 6 |
2023 |
| 12. Wade Lay |
August 3 |
2023 |
| 13. Richard Rojem |
October 5 |
2023 |
| 14. Emmanuel Littlejohn |
November 2 |
2023 |
| 15. Kevin Underwood |
December 7 |
2023 |
| 16. Wendell Grissom |
January 11 |
2024 |
| 17. Tremane Wood |
February 8 |
2024 |
| 18. Kendrick Simpson |
March 7 |
2024 |
| 19. Raymond Johnson |
May 2 |
2024 |
| 20. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez |
June 6 |
2024 |
| 21. James Pavatt |
July 11 |
2024 |
| 22. Clarence Goode |
August 8 |
2024 |
| 23. Ronson Kyle Bush |
September 5 |
2024 |
| 24. Alfred Brian Mitchell |
October 3 |
2024 |
| 25. Marlon Harmon |
December 5 |
2024 |
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James Coddington, a changed man
James Coddington is the first of 25 death row inmates to face execution in the next two years. His clemency hearing is set to take place around the time this newsletter is published, on Wednesday, August 3rd. If Coddington and his counsel fail to persuade the Oklahoma Pardons and Parole Board to commute his sentence to life without parole, Coddington will be executed as soon as August 25th. It's worth noting that only five people have been granted clemency since 1976.
Coddington was 24-years-old when he committed a terrible crime in the heat of a drug-induced psychosis, ultimately resulting in the death of his dear friend and co-worker, Al Hale. Coddington was sentenced to death by a jury who did not hear evidence regarding his mental state at the time of the murder, which rendered him unable to form the requisite degree of intent required for a sentence of death. Still, Coddington has always expressed deep remorse for killing his friend and causing harm to the victim’s family. However, he has channeled his powerful feelings of remorse into positivity, by dedicating his life to self-improvement and serving others while in prison.
Even before he was placed on death row, Coddington had always thrived in structured and controlled environments. However, despite having been successfully discharged from multiple treatment facilities throughout his life, Coddington ultimately had no choice but to return to a volatile and abusive home environment. Under such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Coddington was unable to maintain his path to recovery.
As prison has been the only long-term structured and controlled environment that Coddington has had in his life, it is similarly unsurprising that after having spent many years on death row, he has finally been able to reach a level of permanent stability and sobriety.
Since being placed on death row, Coddington has strived to make a difference in his fellow inmates’ lives by being a mentor for those that struggle with the adversities of incarceration. Coddington has also upheld high level trusty jobs in prison and has kept a clear conduct record for the past fifteen years. He has also maintained good relationships with his friends and family, and continues to develop positive relationships with those around him, including his legal team. Ironically for someone on death row, Coddington is a prime example of what is supposedly one of prison's main aims - rehabilitation.
Coddington hopes to have his sentence commuted to life without parole so he can continue to seek self-improvement and the opportunity to benefit others. If denied clemency, Coddington’s execution would cause far more harm than good. Specifically, his execution will not only cause harm to those who know him, but will also deprive his fellow inmates of a valued mentor and set an example that redemption is meaningless in the eyes of the government. In order to avoid such injustice, Coddington’s death sentence must be commuted.
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Forms of abuse
One of the common factors linking many of the men facing execution in Oklahoma is a history of childhood abuse.
But what does "abuse" look like? It can take so many forms that the term can almost lose its meaning when we read it in a newspaper article or online.
Here is just a little of the abuse James Coddington experienced as a child:
- His mother went to jail on drug charges when James was 6 weeks old.
- As an infant, his father fed him alcohol in his baby bottle. He was an alcoholic from his early days.
- The family grew up poor in an apartment without a working toilet. Instead, they used the bathtub as a toilet.
- James and his siblings did not have enough food to eat, and so his uncle would take them to eat out of dumpsters.
- James' father was a violent alcoholic with an ugly temper who routinely and severely beat his children and inflicted psychological abuse on them.
- James suffered numerous head injuries as a child: one time, his father threw him headfirst into a wall and through a screen door when. Both his father and his older brothers would beat him around the head.
- James, himself, would beat his head into the wall to the point of unconsciousness.
- At the age of 8, he was placed in a psychiatric hospital because of his disruptive behavior at school.
- He and his sister ran away together when his sister was 15 years old. They were malnourished and James suffered from alcohol withdrawal.
It's worth spending time contemplating what James went through as a child, and how those experiences affected his mental and emotional development. It's hardly surprising that he carried the addiction and violence forward. It's a failing of the capital punishment system that it frequently minimizes such mitigating factors and doesn't recognize the human capacity for growth and change.
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 Sister, a film by Joe Cardona and José L. Vázquez, documents the influences that shaped Sister Helen Prejean's path from a cloistered environment to a vocal advocate for justice.
The film shows the winding path Sister Helen followed from a privileged white upbringing in the Jim Crow South to the execution chamber in Angola, Louisiana's State prison, and from the witnessing of Patrick Sonnier's execution to her ongoing ministry to end the death penalty today. It also includes footage of Sr. Helen with Richard Glossip, one of the men Oklahoma plans to execute this year, when he came close to execution for the third time in 2015.
Get together with your class or parish, friends or neighbors, or your whole community and watch Sister together. Available for download now.
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Upcoming Executions
Here, courtesy of the Death Penalty Information Center, is a list of executions slated for the coming months. Not all of them in Oklahoma!
August
17 TX Kosoul Chanthakoummane
25 OK James Coddington
September
22 OK Richard Glossip
22 AL Alan Miller
October
5 TX John Ramirez
20 OK Benjamin Cole
November
9 TX Tracy Beatty
17 OK Richard Fairchild
December
15 OK John Hanson
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