Michigan City, Indiana — An Indiana man convicted decades ago of killing four people, including his brother and his sister’s fiancée, was put to death Wednesday without any independent witnesses, marking the state’s first execution 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. CBS Indianapolis affiliate WTTV reports that officials said the execution process began just after midnight.
Indiana Department of Corrections via AP
Corcoran was scheduled 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 US this year.
According to WTTV, the statement said Corcoran told officials his last words were: “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”
He was convicted of the July 1997 shooting deaths of 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.
According to court records, he was under stress before Corcoran shot the four victims 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.
While imprisoned for these murders, Corcoran reportedly bragged about fatally shooting his parents in 1992 in Steuben County, northern Indiana. He was charged with the murder, but was acquitted.
Last summer, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced plans to resume state executions after a yearslong hiatus marked by a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs.
The state provided limited details about the execution process and state law did not allow media witnesses.
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 from the Death Penalty Information Center.
Corcoran’s lawyers had fought his death penalty for years, arguing that he was seriously mentally ill, which affected his ability to understand and make decisions. This month, his lawyers asked the Indiana Supreme Court to halt his execution, but the request was denied.
Corcoran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016. But his lawyers last week asked the U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana to halt his execution and hold a hearing to decide whether it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness. The court declined to intervene on 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 injunction to halt his execution, but the high court denied their request for a stay late Tuesday, ending Corcoran’s options in court.
His only remaining hope then became Holcomb, who could have commuted Corcoran’s death sentence. But the redemption never came and the execution went as planned.
WTTV says Holcomb released a statement saying: Corcoran’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, the most recent of which was tonight. His sentence was never overturned and was carried out as ordered. by the court.”
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.
Thirteen executions have been carried out in Indiana since then, but they were initiated and carried out by federal officials at a federal prison in Terre Haute in 2020 and 2021.
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 nationwide for years because pharmaceutical companies refuse 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.
Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others have opposed his execution. About a dozen people, some holding candles, held a vigil late Tuesday to pray outside the prison, which is surrounded by razor-wire fences in a residential neighborhood about 60 miles (90 kilometers) east of Chicago.
Erin Hooley / AP
“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 outside the prison on Tuesday evening, some holding signs reading “Execution is not the solution” and “Remember the victims, but not with more killings.”
Erin Hooley / AP
“There is no need and no benefit to this execution. It’s all a show,” said Abraham Borowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, his organization that protests every execution in the US.
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 family members, including his wife, Tahina Corcoran, who told reporters outside the prison that they discussed their faith and their memories, including going to high school together. She reiterated her request to Indiana’s governor to commute her husband’s death sentence.
Tahina Corcoran said her husband is “very mentally ill” and that he didn’t fully understand what was happening to him.
“He’s in shock. He doesn’t understand,” she said.
