MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. — A Indiana man convicted of killing his brother and three other people in 1997, will receive a lethal injection early Wednesday in the state’s first execution in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, has been on death row in Indiana since 1999, the year he was convicted of shooting his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran, his sister’s fiancée, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner, and two other men: Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30.
Barring last-minute legal action or intervention from Gov. Eric Holcomb, Corcoran will be put to death at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City before dawn Wednesday, according to state officials. The governor announced last summer the resumption of state executions after a years-long hiatus marked by a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs.
The state has provided few details about the process, including a specific implementation time. No media witnesses are allowed under state law. Indiana prison officials provided advance photos of the execution chamber, showing a space resembling a sparse operating room with a gurney, bright fluorescent lighting, a floor drain and interior windows to an adjacent viewing room.
Corcoran’s attorneys have been fighting the death penalty for years, arguing that Corcoran is seriously mentally ill, which affects his ability to understand and make decisions. Corcoran federal appeals have been exhausted in 2016. Earlier this month, his lawyers asked the Indiana Supreme Court to halt his execution, but the request was denied was refused.
However, lawyers say the separation between the justices is a signal that there is an opportunity.
“Given that this is a close matter, it should not be rushed,” said attorney Larry Komp. “He is so extremely mentally ill. We think he is irrational. We never had a fair trial.”
Lawyers have said one sign of Corcoran’s mental illness is a handwritten statement Corcoran wrote to judges this month saying he was done litigating his case.
“I am guilty of the crime for which I was convicted and accept the findings of all courts of appeal,” he wrote.
According to court records, before fatally shooting the four victims in July 1997, Corcoran was under stress because his sister’s impending marriage to Turner would necessitate a move from the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home he shared with his brother and sister .
He woke up and heard his brother and others talking about him downstairs, loaded his gun and then shot all four men, records show. While in prison, Corcoran reportedly bragged about fatally shooting his parents in 1992 in Steuben County, northern Indiana. He was charged with the murder, but was acquitted.
If Corcoran is put to death early Wednesday as planned, it will be the state’s first execution since 2009. At that time 13 executions were conducted in Indiana, but these were initiated and carried out by federal officials at a federal prison in Terre Haute in 2020 and 2021.
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.
State officials have said they could not proceed with the executions because a combination of drugs used in lethal injections was no longer available.
There has been a shortage throughout the country for years due to pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell their products for that purpose. That has prompted states, including Indiana, to turn to compounding pharmacies, which manufacture medications specifically for a customer. Some use more accessible medications such as the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which critics say can cause intense pain.
Last week, Corcoran’s attorneys filed a petition in the U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana, asking the court to halt the execution and hold a hearing to decide whether it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness. They mentioned ‘severe and long-lasting paranoid schizophrenia’. But the court on Friday rejected the bid to intervene, prompting attorneys to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.
Several groups, including religious groups and disability rights advocates, have opposed the execution. Several activists planned a vigil to begin late Tuesday outside the prison, about 60 miles (90 kilometers) east of Chicago.
In early December, Indiana Disability Rights asked the governor to commute Corcoran’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Holcomb recently said he would let the legal proceedings in Corcoran’s case “play out” before deciding whether to intervene.
One of Corcoran’s sisters, Kelly Ernst, who lost both a brother and her fiancé in the 1997 shootings, said she believes the death penalty should be abolished and that her brother’s execution will not solve or change anything. She does not plan to attend the execution.
Ernst said she had not had contact with her brother for 10 years until recently.
“I’m at a loss for words. “I’m just really angry that they’re doing it right before Christmas,” she said. “My sister and I have our birthdays in December. I mean, it feels like Christmas is being ruined for the rest of our lives. That’s exactly what it feels like.”
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Callahan reported from Indianapolis.