Indiana man who killed brother, 3 others will be put to death in state’s 1st execution in 15 years

MICHIGAN CITY, Indiana (AP) — An Indiana man convicted in the 1997 killings of his brother and three other people is set to receive a lethal injection by early Wednesday in the state’s first execution in 15 years, without any independent witness present under the state’s laws shielding information about the death penalty.

Joseph Corcoran, 49, has been on death row since 1999, the year he was convicted in the shootings 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, 30.

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

Barring last-minute court action or intervention by Gov. Eric Holcomb, Corcoran is set to be put to death before sunrise Wednesday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to state officials. Last summer, the governor announced the resumption of state executions after a yearslong hiatus marked by a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide.

According to Indiana law, 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.

Corcoran’s attorneys have fought the death penalty sentence for years, arguing that Corcoran is severely mentally ill, which affects his ability to understand and make decisions. Corcoran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016. Earlier this month, his attorneys asked the Indiana Supreme Court to stop his execution but the request was denied.

However, attorneys say since the justices were split 3-2 that signals there’s a chance.

“Given that it is a close case, it shouldn’t be rushed through,” said defense attorney Larry Komp. “He’s so extremely mentally ill. We think he’s irrational. We’ve never had a fair process.”

Attorneys have said one sign of Corcoran’s mental illness includes a handwritten affidavit that he wrote to the justices this month saying he was done litigating his case.

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

According to court records, before Corcoran fatally shot the four victims in July 1997, he was stressed because his sister’s forthcoming marriage to Turner would necessitate moving out of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home he shared with his brother and sister.

Corcoran 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 fatally shooting his parents in 1992 in northern Indiana’s Steuben County. He was charged in their killings but acquitted.

If Corcoran is put to death as scheduled, 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 in Terre Haute.

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.

State officials have said they couldn’t continue executions because a combination of drugs used in lethal injections had become unavailable.

For years, there has been a shortage across the country because pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell their products for that purpose. That’s pushed states, including Indiana, to turn to compounding pharmacies, which manufacture drugs specifically for a client. Some use more accessible drugs such as the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam — both of which, critics say, can cause intense pain.

Indiana is planning to use pentobarbital to execute Corcoran, and, like many states, is refusing to divulge where it got 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.

Last week, Corcoran’s attorneys filed a petition in the U.S. District Court of Northern Indiana asking the court to stop the execution and hold a hearing to decide if it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness. They cited “severe and longstanding paranoid schizophrenia.” But the court rejected the bid to intervene on Friday, prompting attorneys to file an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

Multiple groups, including religious groups and disability rights advocates, have opposed the execution. Several activists were planning a vigil starting late Tuesday outside the prison, about 60 miles (90 kilometers) east of Chicago.

In early December, Indiana Disability Rights asked the governor to commute Corcoran’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Holcomb recently said he would let the legal process “play out” in Corcoran’s case before deciding whether to intervene.

One of Corcoran’s sisters, Kelly Ernst, who lost both a brother and her fiancé in the 1997 shootings, said she believes the death penalty should be abolished and her brother’s execution won’t solve or change anything. She is not planning to be present for the execution.

Ernst said she had been out of contact with her brother for 10 years until recently.

“I’m at a loss for words. I’m just really upset that they’re doing it close to Christmas,” she said. “My sister and I, our birthdays are in December. I mean, it just feels like it’s going to ruin Christmas for the rest of our lives. That’s just what it feels like.”

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Callahan reported from Indianapolis.