Michigan City, Indiana — An Indiana man convicted of killing four people decades ago, including his brother and sister's fiancee, was put to death Wednesday without any independent witnesses, the state's first execution in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. CST at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, the Indiana Department of Corrections said in a statement. CBS Indianapolis affiliate WTTV reports Officials said the execution process began just after midnight.
Indiana Department of Corrections via AP
Corcoran was to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency's statement did not mention that drug. Corcoran's execution was the 24th execution in the US this year.
According to WTTV, the statement said Corcoran told authorities his last words were, ,Not necessary. let's end this,,
He was killed in July 1997 by his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran, his sister's fiance, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner, and two other men, 30-year-old Timothy G. Bricker and Douglas A. Was convicted in the shooting of Stilwell. , 30.
According to court records, before Corcoran fatally shot the four victims he was under stress because his sister's upcoming wedding to Turner would require him to move out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he was visiting his brother and sister. Lived together.
While in prison for those murders, Corcoran reportedly claimed to have shot and killed his parents in Steuben County, northern Indiana, in 1992. He was charged with their murders but acquitted.
Last summer, Governor Eric Holcomb announced plans to resume executions in the state after a years-long hiatus Shortage of deadly injection drugs across the country,
The state provided limited details about the execution process, and no media witnesses were allowed under state law.
According to a recent report, Indiana and Wyoming are the only two states that do not allow members of the media to witness state executions. Death Penalty Information Center,
Corcoran's lawyers had fought against his death sentence for years, arguing that he was severely mentally ill, impairing his ability to understand and make decisions. This month, his lawyers asked the Indiana Supreme Court to stop his execution but the request was denied.
Corcoran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016. But his lawyers last week asked the U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana to halt his execution and hold a hearing to decide whether it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness. The court declined to intervene on Friday, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit did the same on Tuesday.
Corcoran's lawyers then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an emergency order to stay his execution, but the high court late Tuesday rejected their request for a stay, exhausting Corcoran's options in the courts. Went.
Their only remaining hope then became Holcomb, who could commute Corcoran's death sentence. But that change never came and the execution proceeded as scheduled.
WTTV says Holcomb issued a statement saying Corcoran's case “has been reviewed repeatedly over the past 25 years – including 7 times by the Indiana Supreme Court and 3 times by the US Supreme Court, the most recent of which was tonight. His conviction has never been overturned and the order Enforced by the Court.”
The last state execution in Indiana took place in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles was put to death for the 1994 murders of his wife, her brother and sister-in-law.
Since then, 13 executions have been carried out in Indiana, but they were initiated and executed by federal officials at a federal prison in Terre Haute in 2020 and 2021.
State officials have said they cannot continue executions because the combination of drugs used in lethal injections has become unavailable.
For years, there has been a nationwide shortage because pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell their products for that purpose. This has led states, including Indiana, to turn to compounding pharmacies, which make medications specifically for the customer. Some people use more accessible drugs such as the sedative pentobarbital or midazolam, critics say both of which can cause intense pain.
Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others have protested his execution. About a dozen people, some holding candles, gathered late Tuesday to pray outside the prison, which is surrounded by a barbed wire fence in a residential area about 60 miles east of Chicago.
Erin Hooley/AP
Bishop Robert McClory of the Diocese of Gary, who led the prayers, said, “We can build a society without giving government officials the right to execute our citizens.”
Other opponents of the death penalty also demonstrated outside the prison Tuesday night, some holding signs that read, “Execution is not the solution” and “Remember the victims, but not with more killing.”
Erin Hooley/AP
Abraham Borowitz, director of his organization, Death Penalty Action, which opposes every execution in the United States, said, “There is no need and no benefit to these executions. It's all a sham.”
Prison officials said in a brief statement Tuesday evening that Corcoran “had requested Ben & Jerry's ice cream for his last meal.”
Corcoran bid farewell to relatives late Tuesday night, including his wife, Tahina Corcoran, who told reporters outside the prison that they discussed their faith and their memories, including attending high school together. She repeated her request to the Governor of Indiana to commute her husband's death sentence.
Tahina Corcoran said her husband was “very mentally ill” and she did not feel he fully understood what was happening to him.
“He's in shock. He doesn't understand,” he said.