Indiana is prepared to execute Joseph Edward Corcoran on Wednesday morning for the 1997 quadruple murder of his brother, sister’s fiancé and their two friends.
Once Corcoran is given a lethal dose of pentobarbital, a drug used to manage seizures and insomnia, he will become the first death row inmate to be executed in Indiana since the state paused executions in 2009.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita spoke about the 49-year-old’s execution in a statement obtained by the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, saying: “We’re doing our duty − on behalf of the victims and the law-abiding public − to hold perpetrators like Joseph Corcoran accountable for their horrific actions.”
Pictured is Joseph Edward Corcoran
Corcoran’s attorneys, including Larry Komp, made one last effort to stay his execution when they filed a request at the Indiana Supreme Court asking them to consider their client’s competency. The court denied this plea to stop the execution on Dec. 5.
“If Corcoran was not mentally ill, the crimes never would have happened,” Komp told USA TODAY.
Here’s what you need to know about ahead of the execution.
What was Joseph Corcoran convicted of?
Corcoran was found guilty on May 22, 1999, of murdering his older brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran; his sister’s fiancé, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner; and their two other friends, 30-year-old Douglas Stillwell and 30-year-old Timothy Bricker.
He was later sentenced to death for his crimes on Aug. 26, 1999.
On July 26, 1997, a 22-year-old Corcoran was lying down on his bedroom floor in the Fort Wayne, Indiana home he lived in with James Corcoran and his older sister, Kelly Ernst, according to a court filing from 2013. At some point, he heard men’s voices downstairs, which he later told authorities were his brother, Turner, Bricker and Stillwell allegedly talking about him, the court document continued.
An enraged Corcoran grabbed a semi-automatic rifle, went down the stairs and confronted the four men before shooting them at close range, according to the court filing. Stilwell attempted to escape the home, but Corcoran chased him into the kitchen and shot him in the head, the court document reads.
Immediately following the shooting, Corcoran went to a neighbor’s house and asked her to call 911, a separate court filing says. After that, he returned home, sat down on the front porch and waited for the police to arrive.
“They made me mad,” Corcoran told officials, according to court records. “I shot them all.”
Why did Joseph Corcoran shoot the four men?
According to an appellate court document from 2002, Corcoran was under stress at that time because he was being forced to move out of the Fort Wayne home he lived in with his sister, Kelly Ernst, who was about to get married to Turner. Jim Corcoran had also told his younger brother that he could not move in with him once he moved out of the Fort Wayne home, the filing continued.
While initially Corcoran only appeared to be a frustrated brother who didn’t want to leave his sister’s house, more information about his mental state came to light in 1999 when two doctors diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia during his pre-sentencing memorandum, according to court documents.
“Corcoran’s paranoid schizophrenia removes him from reality,” the request filed at the Indiana Supreme Court by Komp and Corcoran’s other attorneys reads. “He cannot distinguish between reality and his delusions and hallucinations − they are his reality. And because his reality is informed by his delusions and hallucinations, he is incapable of rational thought.”
The request also claims Corcoran believes that the prison is torturing him with an ultrasound machine that can cause him to “blurt out his innermost thoughts and permit others to read his thoughts.”
Ernst has even gotten behind stopping her brother’s execution, according to a Facebook post from Dec. 2, which says, “I believe that the death penalty does not address grief or provide true justice, especially for victims, and those with mental illness, it fails to bring closure or relief as I believe there is no such thing as closure.”
When and where is Joseph Corcoran scheduled for execution?
Corcoran is set to be executed before sunrise on Wednesday morning at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, which is about 115 miles from Fort Wayne where the murders occurred.
Pictured is the death chamber inside the Indiana State Prison where Joseph Corcoran will be executed on Wednesday morning.
Who will witness Joseph Corcoran’s execution?
Ernst will not be in attendance for Corcoran’s execution, according to her Facebook. It is unclear if any of his other victim’s family members will be in the death chamber on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear if Corcoran’s wife, Tahina Krontz, would be at the execution. The two met in high school and court records show they got married in 2004 before filing for divorce two years later.
The two eventually remarried on Oct. 30, which was more than a month after Corcoran’s execution date was scheduled, the Louisville Courier-Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. The ceremony was officiated by Justin Krontz, the bride’s son.
The ultimate punishment: A look at the state of the death penalty in the US
What will Joseph Corcoran’s last meal be if he’s executed?
USA TODAY contacted the Indiana Department of Corrections multiple times about Corcoran’s final meal but did not receive a response.
Indiana does allow its death row inmates to order take-out meals from area restaurants, up to $50 worth of food. The food is taken to the prison the night before the execution to avoid the inmate’s stomach being full during the execution.
Contributing: Kristine Phillips & Will Higgins, Indianapolis Star and Marina Johnson, Louisville Courier Journal
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Indiana execution: What to know about Joseph Corcoran on death row
