By Casey Smith
Indiana Capital Chronicle
Barring a last-minute intervention by Indiana’s governor, death row inmate Joseph Corcoran will die sometime before sunrise Wednesday.
The convicted murderer is currently being held at the Indiana State Prison, located in Michigan City. The execution will be the first in 15 years
Corcoran, who has been on death row since 1999, has long resisted opportunities to appeal his case that could potentially overturn his death sentence.
He was 22 when he killed his brother, James Corcoran, 30; Robert Scott Turner, 32; Douglas A. Stillwell, 30; and Timothy G. Bricker, 30, on July 26, 1997. He committed the murders at the home he shared with his brother and a sister.
His mental health has been a part of the decades-old case since its inception, with state and federal public defenders saying he continues to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia that causes him to experience “persistent hallucinations and delusions.”
Although the inmate’s attorneys have argued that he should be spared due to his “ongoing” mental illness, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the sentence, just as multiple state and federal courts have done. The state’s high court justices most recently refused additional attempts by defense lawyers to delay the execution and allow for Corcoran’s competency to be assessed. Appeals for post-conviction relief at the federal level have also been unsuccessful.
As of Tuesday morning, a request to pause the execution was still pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Otherwise, Corcoran’s fate remains in the hands of Gov. Eric Holcomb — who has repeatedly maintained that he supports capital punishment, when “appropriate.”
The Republican governor told the Indiana Capital Chronicle last week that he believes Corcoran to be mentally ill, but that “the courts have spoken to his ability to stand, to carry out the sentence and conviction.” Holcomb made clear that he’s waiting for judicial proceedings to conclude before he takes any action, however.
He said he plans to be at the governor’s mansion on the night of the execution with “direct” communication access to the state prison.
“There is a protocol in place, a phone here. I’ll be here,” Holcomb said.
The next 24 hours
Since 1897, all of Indiana’s 92 state executions have taken place at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, as required by state law.
While separate from state death warrants, an additional 16 executions have been carried out at the federal prison in Terre Haute since 2001.
The Hoosier state has carried out 20 executions in the last 50 years. The first three — in 1981, 1985 and 1994 — were by electrocution. The rest have been by lethal injection — which is now the only method permitted by state law.
State law doesn’t specify what drugs are to be used for executions, saying only that the drugs must be injected intravenously in a quantity and for an amount of time sufficient to kill the inmate.
Previously, Indiana used a lethal combination of three substances to induce death. A new one-drug method, using pentobarbital, will be used for Corcoran’s execution.
The warden of the state prison, Ron Neal, is responsible for selecting an executioner. State law does not stipulate who can administer life-ending drugs. The Indiana Department of Correction has not answered the Capital Chronicle’s requests for information about who has been selected for Corcoran’s execution.
Although multiple individuals are involved in the Indiana execution process, their identities have historically been kept confidential, as instructed under the law.
Death row inmates are provided with a last, or “special” meal, ordered from a local restaurant, according to DOC. The meal must be eaten within four hours and is served 48 to 36 hours before the execution. An inmate is allowed to share food with visitors.
Also during the final 48 hours, offenders are permitted unrestricted phone calls to say their goodbyes. They’re also allowed to visit with family, friends and lawyers in two-hour intervals. Per DOC policy, all visits with Corcoran must end by 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Shortly before execution, inmates are able to write down a final statement. They’re given the chance to provide one last verbal statement in the minutes before the lethal injection.
DOC originally denied a request from Corcoran’s attorneys to allow the inmate’s Wesleyan minister to be present in the execution chamber with a Bible, and to bepermitted to pray with Corcoran. The agency has since agreed to let Rev. David Leitzel have limited physical contact with Corcoran during the execution.
When a prisoner is executed, he or she is strapped to a gurney in a white cinder block room, containing one two-way window, and another window affixed with retractable blinds. Once given the OK by the prison warden, an IV line is inserted, and a lethal substance, or substances, is injected.
Indiana Code says only certain people may witness an execution: the state’s prison warden and designees, the prison physician and another doctor, the prison chaplain, the condemned’s spiritual adviser, a maximum of five friends or family members of the condemned, and a maximum of eight family members — at least 18 years old — of the victims or victims.
The lists of witnesses are often private, but past media reports show the most recent Indiana executions were attended by the victim’s family, attorneys, spiritual advisers and various prison staff. Corcoran’s sister, Kelly Ernst, said the inmate’s family does not wish for him to be executed. Neither she nor her twin sister plan to attend the execution.
Once pronounced dead, the inmate’s family can request for the body to be released to a funeral home, or the deceased can be cremated and buried at the cemetery at the Indiana State Prison. It’s not yet clear what Corcoran’s family plans to do with his remains.
Last-ditch pleas
Corcoran’s defense lawyers maintain that “severe mental illness” has caused their client to make decisions that aren’t in his best interest and have instead ensured his spot on death row.
Corcoran’s mental illness was documented in court filings as early as age 17, when he underwent a psychological evaluation following the deaths of his parents. He was charged with killing them when he was a juvenile but was acquitted.
Doctors who evaluated Corcoran over the last three decades have reached multiple diagnoses, including depression, paranoid schizophrenia and schizoid personality disorder.
State attorneys originally offered Corcoran a life sentence if he would accept a plea or waive jury. He refused, however, saying he would only agree to the terms if the state “would sever his vocal cords first because his involuntary speech allowed others to know his innermost thoughts,” according to court documents.
Later, at his sentencing, Corcoran stated that he wanted to waive all his appeals. And in the early 2000s, when the time was still ripe for Corcoran to initiate post-conviction review, he refused to sign the post-conviction petition.
So far, Corcoran has been unwilling to sign the necessary paperwork to initiate a clemency review or other avenues that could result in his removal from death row.
Three clemencies have been granted in Indiana since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The inmate’s attorneys point to delusions he has about ultrasound machines controlling him and his thoughts. But attorneys for the state maintain he is competent to be put to death.
They assert that Corcoran wants to be executed and has “a rational understanding of the reason for his execution.” The attorney general has additionally pointed to a 2006 letter and statements in years past in which Corcoran “admitted he fabricated this delusion.”
Earlier this month, the Indiana Supreme Court sided with the state in a 3-2 decision, denying requests by Corcoran’s lawyers to delay his impending execution date and allow for his case to be reviewed or his sentence overturned. A different order issued by the court last week again denied a stay.
Corcoran’s legal team asked a federal judge to step in and pause the execution to allow for a hearing and review of their claims that putting the inmate to death is unconstitutional. But in his Friday order, Judge Jon DeGuilio, of the U.S. District Court in Indiana’s Northern District, said claims that Corcoran is incompetent to be executed are “procedurally defaulted and without merit.”
Larry Komp, Corcoran’s federal attorney, argued that Corcoran’s mental illness has long distorted his reality and made him unable to understand the severity of his punishment. He said his client “lacks any rational understanding of his impending execution — he simply wants to expedite the ending of the torture that is not real.”
That’s despite a November letter Corcoran sent to the high court, in which he said he has “no desire nor wish[es] to engage in further appeals or litigation whatsoever.” With his “own free will” and “without coercion or promise of anything,” he asked the justices to withdraw his counsel’s motions.
Case background
Joseph Corcoran told police at the time of the killings that the four men had been talking about him. He first placed his 7-year-old niece in an upstairs bedroom to protect her from the gunfire before killing the four men.
He then laid down the rifle, went to a neighbor’s house, and asked them to call the police. A search of his room and attic, to which only he had access, uncovered over 30 firearms, several munitions, explosives, guerrilla tactic military issue books, and a copy of “The Turner Diaries.”
Earlier, in 1992, Jack and Kathryn Corcoran were found shot to death in their Ball Lake home. Joseph, their son, who was 16 at that time, was charged for their deaths.
In his recent letter to the state supreme court, Corcoran stated that he is “guilty of the crime I was convicted of, and accept the findings of all the appellate courts.” He gave a detailed recitation of what will happen early Wednesday.
“I will … be put to death for the heinous crime I committed. I understand that the execution will end my life,” Corcoran wrote. “I understand medically my heart will stop and all brain activity will cease … I understand the execution, in the interest of judgment, serves as both a punishment and a deterrent.”
