Indiana killed a man overnight

UPDATE: The execution of Joseph Corcoran was Indiana's first in more than 15 years. Despite serious questions about Corcoran's competency, SCOTUS didn't stop it.

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UPDATE, 2:20 a.m. ET December 18: Joseph Corcoran has been killed by the state of Indiana.

We learned this information when and how we did because a reporter from the Indiana Capital Chronicle, Casey Smith, was allowed to witness the execution, after Corcoran added her to his witness list. As reported earlier at Law Dork, Indiana law does not allow media witnesses, but the warden allowed Smith to witness as one of Corcoran’s permitted witnesses.

From what Niki Kelly, the editor-in-chief of the Indiana Capital Chronicle, reported, the execution took around 40 minutes.

[Update, 1:00 p.m. Dec. 18: In Smith’s report, she wrote:

It’s not clear when exactly the execution drug, pentobarbital, was administered into Corcoran’s left arm, via an IV line that protruded from the execution chamber’s wall.

Department of Correction officials said in a statement that “the execution process started shortly after” 12 a.m. Central Time. Entry into the witness room was not allowed until 12:32 a.m.

Read her full report, the only media eyewitness report of the execution. Her presence is evidence of the importance of state and local media, and her report is a reminder of why media witnesses must be allowed for all executions, so long as the government is seeking to carry them out in their residents’ name.]

It was the 24th execution in America in 2024.

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ORIGINAL REPORT:

Indiana plans to carry out its first execution in more than 15 years in darkness and in secret overnight, and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a request to stop the state from doing so.

Indiana plans to execute Joseph Corcoran — a man about whom serious competency questions have been raised — between 12:01 a.m. CT and sunrise (approximately 7 a.m. CT) on Wednesday.

With so long since its last execution, it is essential that journalists be among the witnesses if the execution goes forward — to be able to provide the public with information that the state might prefer to remain unknown about the consequences of this state killing.

That apparently will not happen in Indiana.

As Seth Stern and George Hale explained on Tuesday, Indiana plans to allow no journalists present to witness the execution of Corcoran, should it take place. In the IndyStar, they wrote:

Corcoran’s execution, if it proceeds, will exclude journalists pursuant to an anomalous state law delineating those who can attend executions. The press doesn’t make the cut. The only other state that doesn’t allow reporters at executions is Wyoming, which hasn’t executed anyone since 1992.

That gives Indiana the dubious honor of being the national standard bearer for taxpayer-funded secret killings. Officials may claim their hands are tied, but that’s a cop-out. Their secrecy isn’t limited to what the law purportedly requires — the only information the state plans to provide reporters is a single email after the execution is completed.

Why does it matter?

Because things go wrong when states kill people. Often. And journalists being present can hold public officials accountable for failings in a state’s execution.

As Stern and Hale wrote:

[E]xperienced reporters know what to look for [when witnessing lethal injection executions] — where IVs are placed, evidence of cut-down procedures, breathing patterns and more. Hale’s team at Indiana Public Media was working with an anesthesiology expert on a checklist for Corcoran's execution before being denied access.

Unless Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, steps in, it appears that the execution will go forward.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday night denied a request asking the justices to stay the scheduled execution of Corcoran, convicted in 1999 of the murders of four people, including his brother. No justices noted their dissent.

In the request, formally made by Corcoran’s wife on his behalf, lawyers asked the Supreme Court to halt the execution to consider whether it was appropriate that Indiana state courts in 2024 held that Corcoran is competent to be executed, in part, because “the state court found the condemned competent 20 years ago“ under standards that are no longer in place. Indiana opposed the stay request, including questioning whether his wife had standing to make it.

On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit split 2-1 on that question, with Judges Michael Brennan and Thomas Kirsch, both Trump appointees, rejecting Tahina Corcoran’s claims on her husband’s behalf. Judge John Lee, a Biden appointee, dissented and would have stayed the execution.

“While the harm to the State and the victims [in a stay] may be delay in the duly imposed sentence (a valid interest), the potential harm to Corcoran is experiencing the ‘barbarity of … mindless vengeance,’ which serves no public interest,” Lee wrote.

The “barbarity” is based on the question of whether Corcoran is competent to be executed. The lawyers seeking the stay made clear that has been a serious question for 25 years now. In the request for review at the Supreme Court, the lawyers wrote, “The crime itself is a result of his mental illness. It was an irrational reaction to words not actually spoken—a tragedy driven by the untreated mental illness.”

In the stay application, they explained that Corcoran rejected a potential life sentence at trial based on an unconscionable and “delusional” demand:

At trial, the State was satisfied with a life sentence and offered a plea. Mr. Corcoran conditioned acceptance of the life-sentence plea on something incredible and indicative that he was in the throes of mental illness—the severing of his vocal cords so that he would no longer blurt out his innermost thoughts to his embarrassment, which was another delusion. Of course, the State could not accept this delusional condition and withdrew the offer.

That is who Indiana plans to kill in darkness and in secret overnight.