After a 15-year pause in executions, Indiana prepares to put to death a man who killed 4

[December 16, 2024]  By RICK CALLAHAN

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana officials are preparing to execute the state's first death row inmate in 15 years, who was convicted a quarter-century ago of killing his brother and three other men.

Joseph Corcoran, 49, has been on Indiana's death row since 1999. If he is put to death as scheduled Wednesday, it will be the state's first execution since 2009. In that time, 13 executions were carried out in Indiana but those were initiated and performed by federal officials in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison.

Corcoran is scheduled to be executed before sunrise Wednesday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Chicago.

Indiana's resumption of executions is refocusing attention on Corcoran's case and questions about how the state has been able to obtain a drug for lethal injections.

What was Corcoran convicted of?

Corcoran was 22 on July 26, 1997, when he fatally shot his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran, and three other men: Douglas A. Stillwell, 30, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Robert Scott Turner, 32.

According to court records, Joseph Corcoran was under stress because the forthcoming marriage of his sister to Turner would necessitate moving out of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home he had shared with his brother and sister.

He awoke to hear his brother and others downstairs talking about him, loaded his rifle and then shot all four men, records show.

While jailed, Corcoran reportedly bragged about shooting his parents in 1992 in northern Indiana's Steuben County. He was charged in their killings but acquitted.

Corcoran's sibling opposes execution

Corcoran's sister, Kelly Ernst, who lost a brother and her fiancé in the 1997 shootings, declined to discuss whether she believes her younger brother killed their parents.

But Ernst, who lives in northeastern Indiana, said she believes the death penalty should be abolished and her brother’s execution won’t solve or change anything. She does not plan to attend his execution.

Ernst said she had been out of contact with her brother for 10 years until recently. She believes it’s “fairly obvious” he has a serious mental illness.

“I kind of just feel that there’s no such thing as closure," Ernst, 56, said Friday. “I just don’t know what else to say. I haven’t slept in weeks.”

Why did Indiana stop executions?

Indiana last executed Matthew Wrinkles, who was put to death in 2009 for killing his wife, her brother and sister-in-law in 1994.

State officials said they couldn't continue executions because a combination of drugs used in lethal injections had become unavailable. There has been a yearslong nationwide shortage because pharmaceutical companies — particularly in Europe, where opposition to capital punishment is strongest — have refused to sell their products for that purpose.

That has prompted states to turn to compounding pharmacies, which manufacture drugs specifically for a client. Some states have switched to more accessible drugs such as the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which, critics say, can cause excruciating pain.

Indiana is following that lead, planning to use pentobarbital to execute Corcoran.

The federal government also used pentobarbital in the 13 federal executions carried out during the final six months of then-President Donald Trump’s first term.

Secret source of the drug

Many states, including Indiana, refuse to divulge where they get the drugs. When asked how the state obtained the pentobarbital it plans to use in Corcoran’s execution, the Indiana Department of Correction directed The Associated Press to a state law labeling the source of lethal injection drugs as confidential.

In June, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced the state had acquired pentobarbital and asked the Indiana Supreme Court to set a date for Corcoran’s execution. The high court set his Dec. 18 execution date in September.

David Frank speaks during a gathering of the Indiana Abolition Coalition at the Statehouse, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

The state's execution plan

State law lays out the specific timing and process. It also limits the people who have a role in an execution and shields their identities and specifies who can witness executions at the Indiana State Prison.

At the time of an execution, Indiana code states that the only people allowed to be present are the prison warden, those selected to assist in the execution, the prison physician, one additional physician, the condemned person's spiritual adviser and the prison chaplain.

Up to five friends or relatives of the person being executed and up to eight relatives of the victims of the crime are allowed to view the process.

The Indiana Department of Correction did not respond to multiple queries from the AP asking whether any of the staffers who will help carry out Corcoran’s execution have previously taken part in a state execution.

No media can witness Indiana executions

Indiana is one of only two states, along with Wyoming, that do not allow for members of the news media to witness state executions, according to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

That report states “unobstructed media access to executions is critical because the media observes what the public cannot. States generally prohibit citizens from attending executions, so the media becomes the public’s watchdog, providing important information about how the government is following the law and using taxpayer funds.”

Is there a fight to stop the execution?

Corcoran had exhausted his federal appeals in 2016.

His attorneys asked the Indiana Supreme Court to stop his execution but were denied on Dec. 5. The high court also denied petitions to argue whether he is competent to be executed.

In a handwritten affidavit to the justices, Corcoran said he no longer wanted to litigate his case.

“I am guilty of the crime I was convicted of, and accept the findings of all the appellate courts,” he wrote.

On Wednesday, his attorneys filed a petition in U.S. District Court of Northern Indiana asking the court to stop his execution and hold a hearing to decide if it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness.

They argued he has “severe and longstanding paranoid schizophrenia” and his condition “manifests as auditory hallucinations and delusions that prison guards are torturing him with an ultrasound machine.”

“Indeed, he has volunteered to be executed, and is eager to be executed, because he believes his execution will give him relief from the perceived pain his delusions and hallucinations inflict upon him,” the filing states.

But on Friday, the federal district court declined to intervene, prompting defense attorneys to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

There's also the possibility that outgoing Gov. Eric Holcomb, who has said he would let the legal process “play out,” could step in.

Indiana Disability Rights, a disability rights organization, asked Holcomb in a Dec. 6 letter to commute the death sentence to life in prison without parole.

“Executing individuals who cannot fully comprehend their circumstances, or the consequences of their actions, violates fundamental principles of human dignity and equity,” the letter said.

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Associated Press reporter Sophia Tareen contributed to this report from Chicago.

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