Indiana resumes executions of inmates after 15 years
Joseph Corcoran, a 49-year-old man, was convicted of murdering his brother and three others in 1997. Corcoran shot the victims with a rifle after overhearing conversations he claimed were about him.
Prison
Indiana carried out its first execution in more than a decade. Joseph Corcoran, a 49-year-old man convicted of murdering his brother and three others in 1997, received a lethal injection early Wednesday morning.
The execution took place at the Indiana State Prison (Michigan City). Corcoran was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing his brother, James Corcoran, 30, and three other men - Robert Scott Turner (his sister's fiancé), Timothy Bricker and Douglas Stillwell, all 30.
Court records detail that Corcoran shot the victims with a rifle after overhearing conversations that he claimed were about him.
The resumption of executions in the state
The resumption of executions in the state was announced by Governor Eric Holcomb last summer. Lawyers for the condemned man argue that the condition of suffering from severe mental illness has affected his ability to comprehend and this has affected his sentence. However, legal appeals have been rejected, including a recent application to the Indiana Supreme Court.
Corcoran's execution will end a 15-year period of no activity in Indiana's death chamber. The last time the state executed a prisoner was in 2009, when Matthew Wrinkles received lethal injection for murdering three members of his family.
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