Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, announced Wednesday that the state would implement a convicted killer to death, which will mark the first execution in the state in 15 years, after acquiring a drug used for lethal injections.
Holcomb said he and state Attorney General Todd Rokita, also a Republican, were seeking to carry out the death sentence for Joseph Corcoran, 49, who was convicted of killing four people in 1997.
Corcoran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016 and is awaiting execution, according to Holcomb.
“After years of effort, the Indiana Department of Corrections has acquired a drug, pentobarbital, that can be used to carry out executions,” the governor said in a statement. “Accordingly, I am fulfilling my duties as governor to follow the law and move forward appropriately in this matter.”
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A sign placed by opponents of the death penalty is placed outside the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, Thursday, December 10, 2009, in protest of the execution of Matthew Eric Wrinkles, who was the last Indiana inmate to be executed. (PA)
Rokita filed a petition Wednesday urging the state Supreme Court to set an execution date.
Indiana’s Last Execution It was 2009 when Matthew Eric Wrinkles was put to death for killing his wife, brother and sister-in-law, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The state has eight people on death row, the Death Penalty Information Center said.
The 15-year pause in executions has been attributed to the unavailability of lethal injection drugs, but the state Department of Corrections is now in possession of the sedative pentobarbital, a drug used by several states in lethal injections. It’s unclear exactly how the state acquired the drug.
Indiana The state has eight people on death row. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, file)
“In Indiana, state law authorizes the death penalty as a means to bring justice to victims of society’s most heinous crimes and to hold perpetrators accountable,” Rokita said. “Furthermore, it provides an effective deterrent to some potential offenders who might otherwise commit similar extreme violent crimes.”
“Now that the Indiana Department of Corrections is prepared to carry out the legally imposed sentence, it is up to our justice system to immediately allow executions to resume in our prisons,” Rokita continued.
Attorney Larry Komp, who is Corcoran’s federal defender, said he would respond to the state’s motion and seek clarification on the state’s lethal injection protocol.
Some states are looking for new ways to carry out executions as drugs used in lethal injections, the most common execution method in the United States, become increasingly difficult to find.
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Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb has said he wants executions to resume in Indiana prisons. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, file)
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Earlier this year, Alabama became the first state to use nitrogen gas for execution when he carried out the death penalty on convicted killer Kenneth Smith. The execution method, which was criticized for being inhumane and a form of torture, killed Smith after he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints before several minutes of heavy breathing until breathing is no longer perceptible.
Corcoran is being held at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Department of Corrections records show. He has been on death row since 1999.
He was convicted of the July 1997 murders of his brother James Corcoran, 30, as well as Douglas A. Stillwell, 30, Robert Scott Turner, 32, and Timothy G. . Bricker, aged 30.
In 2020, the first federal execution in 17 years at the time took place at a federal prison in Indiana.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
