Indiana death row inmate who killed his own brother in quadruple murder calls for execution halt

A death row inmate who killed four people, including his own brother, is asking the Indiana Supreme Court to deny a request to set a date for his execution.

Attorneys for Joseph Corcoran argued in a brief filed Thursday that he should not be sentenced to death, insisting he is “undoubtedly seriously mentally ill,” in response to a June 26 request from Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita to set a date for his execution since the Indiana Department of Corrections has since acquired a drug to administer lethal injection.

Corcoran’s execution would be the first in Indiana since 2009. The 49-year-old was acquitted of the charge of shooting his parents in November 1992.

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He then planned to finish high school and follow in his late father’s footsteps by joining the Marines. But on July 26, 1997, he shot and killed his brother, his sister’s fiancé, and two other men in his sister’s Fort Wayne home.

He was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death in 1999. However, his lawyers argue that the court should deny the request to set his execution date because Corcoran has long been diagnosed with mental illness and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, which causes him “persistent hallucinations and delusions.”

“An indescribable tragedy took the lives of four people who undoubtedly deserved to live,” noted Corcoran’s attorney. “However, this tragedy is linked to a serious mental illness that continues to this day.”

They continued: “No one disputes that Corcoran suffers from mental illness. This is clearly demonstrated by his delusions that prison guards torture him daily with an ultrasound machine, his conversations with people who are not there, and his delusions that he suffers from an involuntary speech disorder.”

His lawyers said they believed Corcoran could have avoided the death penalty had he not been mentally ill, as it “influenced the decision-making process.” They pointed out that Corcoran’s “ultimate refusal to accept either a plea bargain or a non-death penalty trial was a result of his mental illness.”

The death row inmate’s lawyers are also asking the court to consider whether state and federal constitutions allow the execution of a person with a serious mental illness. They point to the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which limits the death penalty to offenders who “have committed a narrow category of the most serious crimes and who, by reason of their extreme culpability, most deserve execution.”

They also raised concerns about the execution drug pentobarbital and a secrecy law that protects the drug protocol and source of the drugs used in lethal injections.

“The State requested a date after acquiring drugs from an unknown source at some point, most likely recently. Although a secrecy law is in effect, the date should not be set until the State submits the new record and certifies that no state or federal laws were violated in obtaining the drugs. A secrecy law cannot condone the illegal acquisition of controlled substances,” Corcoran’s lawyers said.

They continued: “No information was given about the quantity of medicines in their possession, their expiration date, or their potency and sterility.