Indiana carries out first execution in 15 years, putting inmate with paranoid schizophrenia to death for quadruple murder

By Dakin Andone, John Fritze and Hanna Park, CNN

(CNN) — Joseph Corcoran, who was convicted of a quadruple homicide in 1997, was executed in Indiana early Wednesday, state prison officials announced, marking the state’s first execution in 15 years.

Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m., the Indiana Department of Corrections said in a news release. His final words were, “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”

Lawyers for Corcoran argued in court filings that putting him to death would violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments because he has long suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

His execution, conducted with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, represents Indiana’s first state-level execution since 2009.

In his last moments, he was accompanied by his childhood pastor, the Rev. David Leitzel, according to CNN affiliate WPTA.

Corcoran’s execution meant “justice was provided to his victims,” who include Corcoran’s brother, James Corcoran; his sister’s fiancé, Robert Scott Turner; as well as Timothy Bricker and Douglas Stillwell, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement.

“A jury recommended and a judge imposed a sentence of death for the senseless murders of four people,” Rokita said.

Gov. Eric Holcomb similarly noted Corcoran’s case had been repeatedly upheld on appeal.

“Joseph Corcoran’s case has been reviewed repeatedly over the last 25 years – including 7 times by the Indiana Supreme Court and 3 times by the U.S. Supreme Court, the most recent of which was tonight. His sentence has never been overturned and was carried out as ordered by the court,” Holcomb, a Republican, said in a statement.

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to halt the execution. There were no recorded dissents, and, as is typical for emergency cases, the court did not provide any reasoning.

He experienced auditory hallucinations and delusions, falsely believing prison guards have been torturing him using sound waves, Corcoran’s attorneys had argued in court filings. Corcoran did not have a rational understanding of his situation, they argued, despite the inmate’s own written statements indicating he wanted his execution to proceed.

The Indiana Supreme Court and a judge from the US District Court in northern Indiana were also not convinced by the attorneys’ arguments.

A last-minute plea to the governor from the condemned man’s wife, Tahina Corcoran, went unanswered.

“I know my husband well, and I know he does suffer from paranoid schizophrenia. And I just want to use this time to ask the governor to please commute Joseph’s sentence and give him life in prison and not execute him,” Tahina Corcoran told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

“We talked about our memories. We talked about what is going to take place,” she said after meeting with her husband late Tuesday.

The execution comes about six months after Holcomb announced the state had, “(a)fter years of effort,” obtained the drug pentobarbital, allowing the state to resume capital punishment for the first time since 2009.

A number of jurisdictions have relied on the sedative to carry out lethal injections in recent years, as states struggle to obtain the drugs they previously used. Pharmaceutical companies opposed to capital punishment have prohibited the use of their products for executions.

“Accordingly, I am fulfilling my duties as governor to follow the law and move forward appropriately in this matter,” Holcomb said in a statement this past summer.

Corcoran’s execution is the 24th carried out in the United States this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Indiana is the ninth state to put at least one inmate to death in 2024.

Killer’s sister opposed the execution

Corcoran’s sister, Kelly Ernst – who was also a sister to victim James Corcoran and engaged to Turner – opposed her brother’s execution and the death penalty more broadly, telling the Associated Press she believes Corcoran’s serious mental illness is “fairly obvious.”

“I kind of just feel that there’s no such thing as closure,” Ernst, 56, told the AP. “I just don’t know what else to say. I haven’t slept in weeks.”

CNN has reached out to Ernst for comment.

Adam Bricker, the brother of victim Timothy Bricker, told CNN prior to the execution he didn’t feel strongly about whether Corcoran was put to death or spent the rest of his life in prison. But he wanted the matter to be brought to a conclusion after enduring so many years of intermittent news coverage about the case, which reawakens his family’s pain.

“It’s not fair to my mom, his kids that are still living, everybody. It’s not fair, and it’s not cool,” Adam Bricker said.

“As a Christian, I don’t wish anybody to die,” he added. “I didn’t wish my brother to die either. But I think the laws need to be followed.”

Indiana is one of just two states with the death penalty that does not allow news reporters to witness an execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. State law indicates those present may include corrections officials, the condemned’s spiritual advisor, up to five friends or relatives of the inmate and up to eight members of the victim’s or victims’ immediate families.

Indiana media groups condemned the decision in a letter to the governor.

In other states, media witnesses generally act as neutral public monitors, reporting details of an execution to the public. That can occasionally mean reporting accounts of executions that ran afoul of a state’s protocol – a particularly important responsibility when they contradict officials’ characterization of events.

A history of mental illness

At the time of the killings, Corcoran was stressed because his sister’s upcoming marriage would have required he move out of her house, according to a summary of the case included in the Indiana Supreme Court’s ruling this month. Corcoran – who the AP reported had been charged but acquitted in the murders of his parents in 1992 – woke up one afternoon and purportedly heard his brother and the other men talking about him, that summary says, and he fatally shot all four with a rifle.

Evidence of Corcoran’s mental illness predates the murders, his attorneys said in an appeal in federal court his month, citing witnesses who recalled him speaking to people who were not present or instances where he wrongly insisted people were talking about him.

Corcoran’s attorneys maintain he should never have stood trial. But his two lawyers at the time did not realize the extent of his mental illness, they wrote in new affidavits, and they did not request a competency hearing.

When his attorneys attempted to file a post-conviction appeal, Corcoran at first refused to sign it, a decision that at the time prevented its review. His attorneys argued in a 2003 hearing that Corcoran was incompetent, and they presented testimony by three mental health experts, each of whom diagnosed Corcoran with paranoid schizophrenia.

The court ultimately found Corcoran was competent to waive his appeals, and while the inmate would later change his mind, it was too late. His petition was dismissed.

Corcoran’s illness had not improved in the last two decades, and it’s proven resistant to the Indiana Department of Corrections’ attempts at medication, his attorneys say.

Still, the state Supreme Court this month ruled his attorneys had failed to prove that anything has changed since the inmate was deemed competent. A federal judge similarly determined the claim that Corcoran was incompetent for execution was without merit.

Both courts pointed in part to a recent affidavit submitted to the state’s high court, in which Corcoran wrote he wanted to abandon his appeals and claimed he understood the consequences of being executed. But Corcoran’s attorneys argued this affidavit was not credible, citing another psychiatrist who determined the inmate’s writings – while appearing logical – are tied to his delusions.

“It is unreasonable to allow the insane to determine their own competency,” the attorneys wrote.

CNN’s Amanda Jackson contributed to this report.

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