Clemency hearings set for six men on Oklahoma's death row

JaNae Williams, Oklahoman
·2 min read
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The Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester shown in November.
The Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester shown in November.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole board has set dates for the clemency hearings of six men scheduled for execution over the next several months.

The board announced the dates for the first six hearings Monday, following the July 1 announcement of execution dates. Twenty-five inmates sentenced to death are scheduled to be executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester through 2024, with the first taking place next month.

More:Oklahoma sets execution dates for 25 death row inmates through end of 2024

The men scheduled for clemency hearings and the dates of their hearings are:

James Coddington

  • Clemency hearing: July 26.

  • Scheduled execution: Aug. 25

  • About Coddington: He faces the execution for murdering a friend, Albert Troy Hale, 73, in Choctaw during a cocaine binge and robbery spree in 1997. He is 50.

Richard Glossip

  • Clemency hearing: Aug. 10

  • Scheduled execution: Sept. 22

  • About Glossip: He was convicted of the 1997 beating death of his boss, Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese. He is 59. A motel maintenance man confessed, saying Glossip offered to pay him $10,000 to do it to keep from being fired.

Benjamin Cole

  • Clemency hearing: Sept. 7

  • Scheduled execution: Oct. 20

  • About Cole: He is set to be executed for killing his infant daughter in 2002 in Claremore because she wouldn't stop crying. He is 57.

Richard Fairchild

  • Clemency hearing: Oct. 12

  • Scheduled execution: Nov. 17

  • About Fairchild: He was convicted of fatally beating his girlfriend's 3-year-old son in Del City in 1993.  He is 62.

John Hanson

  • Clemency hearing: Nov. 9

  • Scheduled execution: Dec. 15

  • About Hanson: He is set to be executed for fatally shooting a woman in 1999 after kidnapping her from a Tulsa mall during a carjacking. He is 58.

Scott Eizember

  • Clemency hearing: Dec. 7

  • Scheduled execution: Jan. 12, 2023

  • About Eizember: He faces execution for bludgeoning an elderly man to death in 2003 after breaking into the victim's home in Depew to spy on an ex-girlfriend. He is 61.

All hearings are scheduled for 9 a.m.

More:Oklahoma County commissioners eye citizens oversight committee for new jail

The schedule follows a request by the parole board to only allow one clemency hearing per month and also the request of corrections officials that executions be at least four weeks apart.

Executions resumed in the state in October after a multi-year pause. Glossip's execution was halted in 2015 just before being carried out when a doctor realized the wrong drug had been delivered.

The state has put four men to death since executions resumed — John Marion Grant, Bigler "Bud" Stouffer, Donald Anthony Grant and Gilbert Ray Postelle. A fifth man scheduled for execution, Julius Jones, had his sentence commuted to life without the possibility of parole just hours before execution.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Pardon and Parole board sets clemency hearings for 6 on death row