Indiana governor Eric Holcomb calls for state's first execution since 2009

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s governor and attorney general have called upon the state’s highest court to set an execution date for a man found guilty in the 1997 murders of four people.  

In a joint statement on Wednesday, Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita announced they are seeking the resuming of executions in state prisons, noting the Indiana Department of Correction has again acquired a drug, pentobarbital, that can carry out death sentences. The state was unable to get the drug for years.  

“Accordingly, I am fulfilling my duties as governor to follow the law and move forward appropriately in this manner,” Holcomb said in a statement.  

Fourteen states have used pentobarbital in executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Those states include Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia.

The case Holcomb and Rokita are trying to push forward involves convicted murderer Joseph Corcoran, an Allen County man found guilty in the 1997 shooting deaths of his brother, James Corcoran; his sister’s fiancé, Robert Scott Turner; and two of their friends, Timothy Bricker and Douglas Stillwell. According to archived newspaper articles, Corcoran became angry when he thought the group was talking about him. After putting his niece to bed, he loaded a semiautomatic rifle and shot them.

Corcoran has been awaiting execution since exhausting his appeals in 2016. 

In a prepared statement, Rokita cited the death penalty as a “means for providing justice for victims of society’s most heinous crimes and holding perpetrators accountable.” 

Rokita, who is running for reelection in November, also said the death penalty is "an effective deterrent" for some potential offenders and "it’s incumbent on our justice system to immediately enable executions in our prisons to resume.”

Others, however, dispute that point.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found no proof that capital punishment deters, or has any effect, on crime, specifically homicide rates.

David Frank, president of the nonprofit Indiana Abolition Coalition that seeks to end the death penalty, also took issue with the lack of information about where the state obtained the drug.

"It's completely outrageous the governor thinks the state can enact the ultimate punishment without providing any insight to the public," Frank said.

Eight people are on Indiana's death row. The last state execution occurred in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles died by lethal injection at the Indiana State Prison.

In 2021, the United States placed a moratorium on federal executions as officials reviewed the DOJ's policies, halting the deaths in the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute where the sentences are carried out.

IndyStar reporter Sarah Nelson can be reached at sarah.nelson@indystar.com