What you should know about Joseph Corcoran on death row

Indiana is poised to execute Joseph Edward Corcoran Wednesday morning for the 1997 quadruple murders of his brother, his sister’s fiancé and their two friends.

Once Corcoran is given a lethal dose of pentobarbital, a drug used to treat seizures and insomnia, he will become the first death row inmate executed in Indiana since the state paused executions in 2009.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita commented on the 49-year-old’s execution in a statement obtained by the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, saying: “We are doing our duty – on behalf of the victims and the law-abiding people . “Public – to hold perpetrators like Joseph Corcoran accountable for their terrible actions.”

Corcoran’s lawyers, including Larry Komp, made a final attempt to stay his execution when they filed a petition with the Indiana Supreme Court asking them to consider their client’s competency. The court rejected that request to stop the execution on December 5.

“If Corcoran wasn’t mentally ill, the crimes would never have happened,” Komp told USA TODAY.

Here’s what you need to know before executing:

What was Joseph Corcoran convicted of?

Corcoran was convicted on May 22, 1999, of the murder of his older brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran; his sister’s fiancé, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner; and her two other friends, 30-year-old Douglas Stillwell and 30-year-old Timothy Bricker.

He was later sentenced to death for his crimes on August 26, 1999.

On July 26, 1997, a 22-year-old Corcoran lay on the floor of his bedroom in the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home where he lived with James Corcoran and his older sister Kelly Ernst, according to a 2013 court filing Sometime Heard He heard male voices downstairs that he later told authorities that his brother Turner, Bricker and Stillwell were talking about him, the court document continues.

An enraged Corcoran grabbed a semi-automatic rifle, went downstairs and confronted the four men before shooting them at point-blank range, court records say. Stilwell tried to escape the house, but Corcoran chased him into the kitchen and shot him in the head, the court document said.

Immediately after the shooting, Corcoran went to a neighbor’s house and asked her to call 911, a separate court filing said. He then returned home, sat on the porch and waited for the police to arrive

“You made me angry,” Corcoran told officers, according to court documents. “I shot them all.”

Why did Joseph Corcoran shoot the four men?

According to a 2002 appeals court document, Corcoran was under stress at the time because he was forced to move out of the Fort Wayne home where he lived with his sister, Kelly Ernst, who was about to marry Turner. Jim Corcoran also told his younger brother that he could no longer move in with him after he moved out of the Fort Wayne home, the filing continued.

While Corcoran initially appeared to be just a frustrated brother who wouldn’t leave his sister’s house, more information about his mental state came to light in 1999 when two doctors diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia in advance of sentencing, according to court documents.

“Corcoran’s paranoid schizophrenia distances him from reality,” says the petition filed by Komp and Corcoran’s other attorneys with the Indiana Supreme Court. “He cannot distinguish between reality and his delusions and hallucinations – they are his reality. And because his reality is shaped by his delusions and hallucinations, he is unable to think rationally.”

The request also alleges that Corcoran believes the prison is torturing him with an ultrasound machine that can cause him to “blurt out his innermost thoughts and allow others to read his mind.”

Ernst even campaigned to stop her brother’s execution, according to a Dec. 2 Facebook post that said, “I believe that the death penalty neither addresses grief nor provides true justice, especially for victims and people with mental illness.” brings no closure or relief because I believe there is no such thing as closure.”

When and where is Joseph Corcoran scheduled to be executed?

Corcoran is scheduled to be executed before sunrise Wednesday morning at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, about 115 miles from Fort Wayne, where the murders took place.

Who will witness the execution of Joseph Corcoran?

According to her Facebook account, Ernst will not be present at Corcoran’s execution. It is unclear whether family members of his other victim will be in the death chamber on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear whether Corcoran’s wife, Tahina Krontz, would be present at the execution. The two met in high school and court records show they married in 2004 before filing for divorce two years later.

The two eventually remarried on Oct. 30, more than a month after Corcoran’s scheduled execution date, reported the Louisville Courier-Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. The ceremony was officiated by Justin Krontz, the bride’s son.

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