(Indianapolis, IN) – Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita are asking the Indiana Supreme Court to schedule execution dates for death row inmates, staring with a convicted murderer responsible for the deaths of four people.
“After years of effort, the Indiana Department of Correction has acquired a drug — pentobarbital – which can be used to carry out executions. Accordingly, I am fulfilling my duties as governor to follow the law and move forward appropriately in this matter,” Gov. Holcomb said.
Joseph Corcoran was found guilty in the 1997 murders of four people. He exhausted his appeals in 2016 and has been awaiting execution.
“In Indiana, state law authorizes the death penalty as a means of providing justice for victims of society’s most heinous crimes and holding perpetrators accountable,” Rokita said. “Further, it serves as an effective deterrent for certain potential offenders who might otherwise commit similar extreme crimes of violence. Now that the Indiana Department of Correction is prepared to carry out the lawfully imposed sentence, it’s incumbent on our justice system to immediately enable executions in our prisons to resume. Today, I am filing a motion asking the Indiana Supreme Court to set a date for the execution of Joseph Corcoran.”
Corcoran is one of eight men on death row who have exhausted all of their appeals. All eight are held in the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
It’s been 15 years since anyone receiving the death penalty in Indiana has been executed.
