Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, announced Wednesday that the state will execute a convicted murderer, marking the first execution in 15 years after the state gained access to drugs used for lethal injections.
Holcomb said he and state Attorney General Todd Rokita, also a Republican, are seeking the death penalty against Joseph Corcoran, 49, who was convicted of killing four people in 1997.
Holcomb said Cochran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016 and has been awaiting execution.
“After years of hard work, the Indiana Department of Corrections has obtained a drug – pentobarbital – that can be used in executions,” the governor said in a statement. “As such, I am fulfilling my duties as governor, Comply with the law and proceed appropriately.”
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Death penalty opponents hold a sign in front of the Indiana State Penitentiary in Michigan City, Indiana, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009, to protest the execution of Matthew Eric Wrinkles, the last person to be incarcerated. Execution of Indiana prisoners. (Associated Press)
Rokita filed a motion Wednesday urging the state Supreme Court to set an execution date.
The last execution in Indiana was in 2009, when Matthew Eric Wrinkles was executed for killing his wife, her brother and sister-in-law, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The state has eight people on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
A 15-year moratorium on executions stemmed from a lack of lethal injection drugs, but the state’s Department of Corrections now possesses the sedative pentobarbital, which is used in multiple states for lethal injections. It’s unclear how the state obtained the drug.
Indiana has eight people on death row in the state. (AP Photo/Sue Ogroki, File)
“In Indiana, state law authorizes the death penalty as a means of delivering justice for victims of society’s most heinous crimes and holding perpetrators accountable,” Rokita said. “Additionally, it serves as an effective deterrent to certain possible Potential offenders who commit similar extremely violent crimes.”
“Now that the Indiana Department of Corrections is ready to carry out the sentences imposed under the law, our justice system has a responsibility to immediately resume executions in prisons,” Rokita continued.
Cochran’s federal defender, attorney Larry Kemp, said they would respond to the state’s motion and seek clarification on the state’s lethal injection protocol.
As drugs used in lethal injection, the most common method of execution in the United States, become increasingly difficult to find, some states are looking for new execution methods.
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Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said he is seeking to resume executions in Indiana prisons. (AP Photo/Darren Cummings, File)
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Earlier this year, Alabama became the first state to use nitrogen in the execution of convicted killer Kenneth Smith. This method of execution has been criticized as inhumane and a form of torture, with Smith shaking and rolling on a gurney, sometimes tugging at the restraints and breathing heavily until he could no longer breathe, resulting in Smith’s death.
Cochran is being held at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to Department of Corrections records. He has been on death row since 1999.
In July 1997, he was convicted of killing his brothers James Corcoran, 30, Douglas A. Stillwell, 30, Robert Scott, 32 Turner (Robert Scott Turner) and 30-year-old Timothy G. Brick.
In 2020, a federal prison in Indiana carried out the first federal execution in 17 years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
