The state of Indiana has executed its first inmate in 15 years, as Joseph Edward Corcoran was declared dead before sunrise on Wednesday morning. He committed the homicides with a semi-automatic rifle, and at the home he lived in with his older sister and brother in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Before Corcoran's execution, his attorneys filed a request at the Indiana Supreme Court asking them to consider his client's competency due to his paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis in The court denied the attorneys' request on Dec.
Corcoran died at a. CST after being given a lethal dose of pentobarbital, a drug separately used to manage seizures and insomnia, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. Execution proceedings began shortly after midnight CST, according to the state department of corrections. Corcoran delivered his final words before taking his last breath. Supreme Court, the most recent of which was tonight.
His sentence has never been overturned and was carried out as ordered by the court. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita also issued a statement, saying Corcoran "finally paid his debt to society as justice was provided to his victims. Corcoran was convicted on May 22, , for the murders of his brother, Turner, Stillwell and Bricker.
He was sentenced to death for the homicides on Aug. On July 26, , Corcoran laid down on his bedroom floor in the Fort Wayne, Indiana home he lived in with James Corcoran and his older sister, Kelly Ernst , and heard men's voices downstairs, according to a court filing.
