Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb announced on Wednesday that the state is seeking an execution date for Joseph Corcoran, convicted of killing four people in 1997. Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a motion on the same day requesting the state Supreme Court to set an execution date.
The state’s last execution took place in 2009, when Matthew Eric Wrinkles was executed for the murders of his wife and her brother and sister-in-law, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. A years-long pause in executions has been attributed to the unavailability of lethal injection drugs.
The Indiana Department of Correction has now acquired pentobarbital, a sedative used by multiple states in lethal injections, after “years of effort,” according to Holcomb. “I am fulfilling my duties as governor to follow the law and move forward appropriately in this matter,” Holcomb stated.
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Corcoran’s attorney, federal defender Larry Komp, indicated they will respond to the state’s motion and seek clarity on the state’s lethal injection protocol. A department spokesperson did not immediately respond to inquiries about how the state acquired the drug.
First introduced in 2010, pentobarbital is one of the few drugs available for lethal injections. Due to the increasing difficulty in obtaining such drugs, some states are exploring alternative methods. Earlier this year, Alabama became the first state to use nitrogen gas in an execution.
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Corcoran, 49, has been on death row since 1999 for the July 1997 murders of his brother, James Corcoran, 30; Douglas A. Stillwell, 30; Robert Scott Turner, 32; and Timothy G. Bricker, 30. He is currently held at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Federal appeals for Corcoran concluded in 2016.
Indiana has eight individuals on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In 2020, the first federal execution in 17 years was carried out at a federal prison in Indiana.
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