Indiana conducts first execution in 15 years, puts quadruple killer to death
Michigan City (Indiana) — An Indiana man convicted of killing four people decades ago, including his brother and sister’s fiancé, was executed Wednesday without any independent witnesses, the state’s first execution in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. Central Time 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 began just after midnight.
Indiana Department of Corrections (AP)
Cochran was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency’s statement did not mention the drug. Cochran’s execution was the 24th in the United States this year.
The statement said Corcoran told officials his last words were: “Not really. let’s end this.”
He was charged in the July 1997 shooting deaths of his brother James Corcoran, 30, his sister’s fiancé Robert Scott Turner, 32, and two other men (Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell) were convicted. ,30.
Before Corcoran shot the four victims, he was under intense stress because his sister was about to marry Turner and he would have to move out of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home he shared with his siblings, according to court records. .
While in prison for the slayings, Corcoran reportedly bragged about shooting his parents to death in 1992 in Steuben County, northern Indiana. He was accused of the killing but acquitted.
Last summer, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced plans to resume state executions after a one-year hiatus. Nationwide lethal injection drug shortage.
The state has provided limited details about the execution and does not allow media witnesses 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.
Cochran’s attorneys have defended his death penalty for years, saying he suffered from severe mental illness that affected his understanding and decision-making abilities. This month, his attorneys asked the Indiana Supreme Court to halt his execution, but the request was denied.
Corcoran exhausted federal appeals in 2016. But his attorneys last week asked the U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana to halt his execution and hold a hearing to determine whether it was unconstitutional because Corcoran suffered from severe mental illness. The court declined to intervene on Friday, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit did the same on Tuesday.
Cochran’s lawyers then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an emergency order halting his execution, but the high court late Tuesday rejected their request for a stay, ending Cochran’s options before the court.
His only remaining hope was Holcomb, who could commute Corcoran’s death sentence. But the commutation never came and the execution continued as planned.
WTTV said Holcomb issued a statement saying Cochran’s case “has been reviewed repeatedly over the past 25 years – including seven times by the Indiana Supreme Court and three times by the U.S. Supreme Court, most recently tonight. His conviction has never been overturned and is enforced as ordered by Court hearing.”
The last execution in Indiana was in 2009, when Matthew Wrinkles was executed for the 1994 slayings of his wife, her brother and sister-in-law.
Indiana has since carried out 13 executions, but these were all initiated and carried out by federal officials at the federal prison in Terre Haute in 2020 and 2021.
State officials said they were unable to proceed with the execution because the drug combination used for lethal injections was no longer available.
There have been nationwide shortages for years as pharmaceutical companies refused to sell their products for this purpose. That’s prompted states, including Indiana, to turn to compounding pharmacies that specialize in manufacturing medications for customers. Some people use more readily available drugs, such as the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which critics say can cause severe pain.
Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others opposed his execution. About a dozen people, some holding candles, held a prayer vigil outside the prison Tuesday night. The prison is located in a residential neighborhood about 60 miles east of Chicago and is surrounded by barbed wire.
“We can build a society without giving government authorities the right to execute their own citizens,” said Bishop Robert McCrory of the Diocese of Gary, who led the prayer.
Other death penalty opponents also demonstrated outside the prison on Tuesday night, some holding signs that read “Death penalty is not the solution” and “Remember the victims, but no more killings.”
“Death penalty action is unnecessary and does no good. It’s all for show,” said Abraham Borowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, a group that protests every execution in the United States
Cochran “ordered Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for his last meal,” prison officials said in a brief statement Tuesday night.
Cochran said goodbye to relatives Tuesday night, including his wife, Tashina Cochran, who told reporters outside the prison that they discussed their faith and memories, including going to high school together. She again asked the governor of Indiana to commute her husband’s death sentence.
Tahina Corcoran said her husband “suffered from severe mental illness” and she believed he did not fully understand what was happening to him.
“He was shocked. He didn’t understand,” she said.
