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An Indiana man convicted of killing four people including his brother and his sister’s fiancé decades ago was put to death early on Wednesday, marking the state’s first execution in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12.44am CST 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. It was the 24th execution in the US this year.
No media witnesses were permitted under state law, but Corcoran chose a reporter for the Indiana Capital Chronicle as one of his witnesses, the outlet’s editor posted on X early on Wednesday.
Four people viewed the execution through a one-way window in a small adjacent room, said Corcoran’s attorney, Larry Komp. The death took eight minutes, according to Komp who said he only had a partial view and could not hear anything. 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.
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.
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 was convicted in the July 1997 shootings of 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.
While jailed for those killings, Corcoran reportedly bragged about fatally shooting his parents in 1992 in northern Indiana’s Steuben county. He was charged in their killings but acquitted.
Last summer, the governor, Eric Holcomb, announced plans to resume state executions following a years-long hiatus marked by a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide.
Corcoran’s attorneys had fought his death penalty sentence for years, arguing he was severely mentally ill, which affected his ability to understand and make decisions. This month his attorneys asked the Indiana supreme court to stop his execution but the request was denied.
Komp said the question of Corcoran’s mental health was not properly evaluated.
“There has never been a hearing to determine whether is he competent to be executed,” he said in a statement to the Associated Press. “It is an absolute failure for the rule of law to have an execution when the law and proper processes were not followed.”
Indiana’s last state execution was in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles was put to death for killing his wife, her brother and sister-in-law in 1994. 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.
Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others have opposed his execution. About a dozen people, some holding candles, held a vigil late on Tuesday to pray outside the prison, which is surrounded by barbed wire fences in a residential area about 60 miles (90km) east of Chicago.
“We can build a society without giving governmental authorities the right to execute their own citizens,” said Bishop Robert McClory of the diocese of Gary, who led the prayers.
Corcoran said farewell late on 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.
“He is in shock. He doesn’t understand,” she said.
