MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man convicted decades ago of killing four people, including his brother and his sister's fiancé, was executed Wednesday without an independent witness. This was the first execution in the state 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 Correction said in a statement. Corcoran was supposed to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency's statement made no mention of that drug. Corcoran's execution was the 24th in the United States this year.
He was convicted in the July 1997 shooting deaths of his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran, his sister's fiancé, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner, and two other men, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell , 30.
According to court documents, before he fatally shot the four victims, Corcoran was under stress because his sister's impending marriage to Turner would require a move from the home he shared with his brother and sister in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
While in prison for those murders, Corcoran reportedly bragged about fatally shooting his parents in 1992 in Steuben County in northern Indiana. He was tried for her murders but acquitted.
Last summer, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced plans to restart state executions after a years-long hiatus marked by a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs.
The state provided limited information about the execution process, and state law did not allow media witnesses.
According to a recent report from the Death Penalty Information Center, Indiana and Wyoming are the only two states that do not allow members of the media to attend state executions.
Corcoran's lawyers had fought his death penalty for years, arguing he was severely mentally ill, which affected 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 appeal options in 2016. But his lawyers asked the U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana last week to stop his execution and hold a hearing to decide whether it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran suffers from serious mental illness. The court declined to intervene 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 staying his execution, but the high court denied their request for a stay late Tuesday, ending Corcoran's options with the courts.
His only remaining hope then was Holcomb, who could have commuted Corcoran's death sentence. But this transformation never happened and the execution went as planned.
The last state execution in Indiana was in 2009, when Matthew Wrinkles was put to death for killing his wife, her brother and sister-in-law in 1994. Since then, 13 executions have been carried out in Indiana, but they were initiated by federal officials and carried out in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison in Terre Haute.
State officials said they could not continue executions because a combination of drugs used in lethal injections was no longer available.
There has been a shortage across the country for years because pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell their products for this purpose. That has led states, including Indiana, to turn to compounding pharmacies that make drugs specifically for a customer. Some turn to more accessible medications like the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which critics say can cause severe pain.
Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others have spoken out against his execution. About a dozen people, some carrying candles, held a vigil late Tuesday to pray outside the prison, which is surrounded by barbed wire fences in a residential area about 60 miles (90 kilometers) east of Chicago.
“We can build a society without giving government authorities the right to execute their own citizens,” said Bishop Robert McClory of the Diocese of Gary, who led the prayers.
Other opponents of the death penalty also demonstrated in front of the prison on Tuesday evening. Some held signs reading “Execution is not the solution” and “Remember the victims, but not more killings.”
“There is no need and no benefit from this implementation. “It's all a show,” said Abraham Borowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, his organization that protests every execution in the United States
Prison officials said in a brief statement Tuesday evening that Corcoran “requested Ben & Jerry's ice cream for his last meal.”
Corcoran said goodbye late Tuesday to his relatives, including his wife, Tahina Corcoran, who told reporters outside the prison that they discussed their faith and memories, including attending school together. She repeated her request to the governor of Indiana to commute her husband's death sentence.
Tahina Corcoran said her husband is “very mentally ill” and she doesn't believe he fully understands what is happening to him.
“He is in shock. He doesn’t understand,” she said.
