An Indiana inmate convicted of a quadruple homicide was put to death early Wednesday in the state’s first execution in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, was executed at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. He was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. local time.
Only four people witnessed the execution which took about eight minutes. Corcoran’s last words were “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”
Corcoran was in 1997 convicted of killing his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran, his sister’s fiancé, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner, and Timothy G. Bricker and Douglas A. Stillwell, both 30.
While in jail for the quadruple murder, Corcoran admitted to killing his parents in 1992. He was later acquitted of those killings.
Corcoran’s attorneys argued that he shouldn’t be executed due to severe mental illness and asked the Indiana Supreme Court and the U.S. District Court of Northern Indiana to halt the execution but their requests failed.
“There has never been a hearing to determine whether is he competent to be executed,” Attorney Larry Komp said.
“It is an absolute failure for the rule of law to have an execution when the law and proper processes were not followed.”
