19 December 2024 :
December 18, 2024 - Indiana. Joseph Corcoran, 49, White, was executed
The state put Joseph Corcoran to death by lethal injection early Wednesday morning, carrying out its first execution in 15 years.
The process started just after midnight CST, and Corcoran was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, the Indiana Department of Correction said in a statement. Corcoran was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency’s statement did not mention that drug.
The state provided limited details about the execution process, and no media witnesses were permitted under state law. Indiana and Wyoming are the only two states that do not allow members of the media to witness state executions, according to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
However, Corcoran's legal team gave one spot to a Capital Chronicle reporter, who was allowed to witness the execution along with Corcoran's wife, Tahina; her son; and one of Corcoran's attorneys, Larry Komp. The witnesses were kept in an area with a one-way window into the execution chamber. A separate area was allotted for victims' families, but it's unclear who attended.
The blinds for the window were raised at 12:34 a.m., the Capital Chronicle reported. Corcoran was still and silent, with his eyes blinking. It's unclear when exactly the drug pentobarbital was administered into Corcoran's arm through an IV line, but the Chronicle reported that his left hand and fingers moved briefly at 12:37 a.m. The blinds were closed at 12:40 a.m., and Corcoran was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m.
The process, from the moment witnesses were allowed to see the execution chamber to Corcoran's death, lasted 10 minutes.
By the state's account, Corcoran's last words were: "Not really. Let’s get this over with.”
Komp said “there was no way to tell” if Corcoran was in pain.
According to the Indiana Capital Chronicle, witnesses were only allowed to watch the execution for six minutes before blinds to the viewing room were closed. Corcoran, whose pastor was allowed in the room with him during the execution, “appeared awake with his eyes blinking, but otherwise still and silent," according to the newspaper.
Corcoran killed four people in 1997.
Corcoran was sentenced in 1999 in the 1997 shootings of 4 people: 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.
On July 26, 1997, Corcoran was living with his brother, James Corcoran; his sister, Kelly Nieto; and her fiance, Robert Turner. Court documents say he became enraged when he heard his brother, Turner and two of his brother's friends, Timothy Bricker and Doug Stillwell, talking about him. After putting his 7-year-old niece in an upstairs bedroom, Corcoran loaded his semiautomatic rifle and fatally shot his brother, his brother's two friends and Turner.
His attorneys had argued that their client's history of mental illness, including paranoid schizophrenia, rendered him unable to comprehend the severity of his crimes and the reason for his punishment.
In a statement released after Corcoran was executed, his attorneys said "We stand resolute that permitting Joe's execution to proceed has done harm to the rule of law," the attorneys added. "The applicable legal standards from the United States Supreme Court were not followed, and the safeguards of our Constitution to protect the most vulnerable among us seemingly were ignored."
Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others have opposed his execution. More than two dozen people were gathered outside Indiana State Prison in Michigan City early Tuesday, protesting and praying.
It has been 15 years since Indiana has carried out an execution because of a lawsuit and other complications that prevented Indiana and many other states from obtaining the mixture of drugs used in its lethal injection protocol.
Corcoran’s sister, whose name is now Kelly Ernst, had been pushing to stop the death penalty for her brother.
On Dec. 2, she posted on Facebook that she has forgiven him.
“I believe that the death penalty does not address grief or provide true justice especially for victims, and those with mental illness, it fails to bring closure or relief as I believe there is no such thing as closure," she wrote. “Instead, it is a lengthy, costly and political process. My views on the death penalty have evolved as I’ve matured. Nearly 30 years have passed since the events occurred and only afterwards was Joe diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.”
Prison officials said in a brief statement Tuesday evening that Corcoran “requested Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for his last meal.”
Corcoran said farewell late Tuesday to relatives, 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 reiterated her request for Indiana’s governor to commute her husband’s death sentence.
Tahina Corcoran said her husband was “very mentally ill” and she didn't think he fully grasped what was happening to him.
Indiana’s last state execution was in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles was put to death. Since then, 13 executions were carried out in Indiana but those were initiated and performed by federal officials in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison in Terre Haute.
On the Corcoran case see also HoC 27/01/2010 and 08/11/2010
Corcoran becomes the 1st inmate executed this year in Indiana, the 21st since Indiana resumed executions in 1981, the 24th this year in the U.S., and No. 1606 since the U.S. resumed executions in 1977.
https://eu.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2024/12/18/indiana-executes-joseph-corcoran-lethal-injection-despite-mental-illness-claims/77060988007/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-convicted-quadruple-homicide-put-death-indianas-1st-116894785#:~:text=MICHIGAN%20CITY%2C%20Ind.,dead%20at%2012%3A44%20a.m.
