An Indiana man convicted of killing 4 individuals together with his brother and his sister’s fiancé many years in the past was put to loss of life Wednesday, with none impartial witness, marking the state’s first execution in 15 years.

Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced lifeless at 12:44 a.m. CST on the Indiana State Jail in Michigan Metropolis, Indiana, the Indiana Division of Correction mentioned in a press release. Corcoran was scheduled to be executed with the highly effective sedative pentobarbital, however the state company’s assertion didn’t point out that drug. Corcoran’s execution was the twenty fourth within the U.S. this yr.

He was convicted within the July 1997 shootings of his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran, his sister’s fiancé, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner, and two different males, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30.

In accordance with court docket data, earlier than Corcoran fatally shot the 4 victims he was below stress as a result of the forthcoming marriage of his sister to Turner would necessitate shifting out of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, residence he shared together with his brother and sister.

Whereas jailed for these killings, Corcoran reportedly bragged about fatally capturing his mother and father in 1992 in northern Indiana’s Steuben County. He was charged of their killings however acquitted.

Final summer time, Gov. Eric Holcomb introduced plans to renew state executions following a yearslong hiatus marked by a shortage of deadly injection medication nationwide.

The state offered restricted particulars concerning the execution course of, and no media witnesses have been permitted below state regulation.

Indiana and Wyoming are the one two states that don’t permit members of the media to witness state executions, in line with a current report by the Demise Penalty Data Heart.

Corcoran’s attorneys had fought his loss of life penalty sentence for years, arguing he was severely mentally sick, which affected his skill to grasp and make choices. This month his attorneys requested the Indiana Supreme Court docket to cease his execution however the request was denied.

Corcoran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016. However his attorneys requested the U.S. District Court docket of Northern Indiana final week to cease his execution and maintain a listening to to resolve if it might be unconstitutional as a result of Corcoran has a critical psychological sickness. The court docket declined to intervene Friday, and the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the seventh Circuit did the identical Tuesday.

Corcoran’s attorneys then requested the U.S. Supreme Court docket subject an emergency order halting his execution, however the excessive court docket denied their request for a keep late Tuesday, ending Corcoran’s choices with the courts.

His sole remaining hope then turned Holcomb, who might have commuted Corcoran’s loss of life sentence. However that commutation by no means got here and the execution proceeded as scheduled.

Indiana’s final state execution was in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles was put to loss of life for killing his spouse, her brother and sister-in-law in 1994. Since then, 13 executions have been carried out in Indiana however these have been initiated and carried out by federal officers in 2020 and 2021 at a federal jail in Terre Haute.

State officers have mentioned they couldn’t proceed executions as a result of a mix of medicine utilized in deadly injections had develop into unavailable.

For years, there was a scarcity throughout the nation as a result of pharmaceutical firms have refused to promote their merchandise for that objective. That’s pushed states, together with Indiana, to show to compounding pharmacies, which manufacture medication particularly for a consumer. Some use extra accessible medication such because the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, each of which, critics say, may cause intense ache.

Non secular teams, incapacity rights advocates and others have opposed his execution. A couple of dozen individuals, some holding candles, held a vigil late Tuesday to wish exterior the jail, which is surrounded by barbed wire fences in a residential space about 60 miles (90 kilometers) east of Chicago.

“We are able to construct a society with out giving governmental authorities the correct to execute their very own residents,” mentioned Bishop Robert McClory of the Diocese of Gary, who led the prayers.

Different loss of life penalty opponents additionally demonstrated exterior the jail Tuesday evening, some holding indicators that learn “Execution Is Not The Answer” and “Bear in mind The Victims However Not With Extra Killing.”

“There isn’t a want and no profit from this execution. It’s all present,” mentioned Abraham Borowitz, director of Demise Penalty Motion, his group that protests each execution within the U.S.

Jail officers mentioned in a quick assertion Tuesday night that Corcoran “requested Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for his final meal.”

Corcoran mentioned farewell late Tuesday to relations, together with his spouse, Tahina Corcoran, who informed reporters exterior the jail that they mentioned their religion and their recollections, together with attending highschool collectively. She reiterated her request for Indiana’s governor to commute her husband’s loss of life sentence.

Tahina Corcoran mentioned her husband is “very mentally sick” and he or she doesn’t assume he totally grasps what is going on to him.

“He’s in shock. He doesn’t perceive,” she mentioned.

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Callahan reported from Indianapolis.