Entries tagged with “Joseph Corcoran”

Mental Illness

,

Secrecy

,

Upcoming Executions

,

Religion

,

Victims' Families

,

Dec 17, 2024

Indiana’s First Execution in 15 Years Raises Serious Constitutional Concerns

If Joseph Corcoran had been sen­tenced to death just a few miles to the east, across the bor­der in Ohio instead of in Fort Wayne, Indiana, it’s like­ly that a court would have barred his exe­cu­tion. Ohio law pre­vents a per­son with a seri­ous men­tal ill­ness (SMI) at the time of their crime, defined as schiz­o­phre­nia, schizoaf­fec­tive dis­or­der, bipo­lar dis­or­der, or delu­sion­al dis­or­der, from being put to death. Mr. Corcoran, who has a long his­to­ry of paranoid…

Mental Illness

,

Upcoming Executions

,

Dec 06, 2024

Indiana Plans to Resume Executions after 15-Year Pause with a Severely Mentally Ill ​“Volunteer”

The state of Indiana is sched­uled to car­ry out its first exe­cu­tion in 15 years on December 18, 2024, with the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran (pic­tured). Sentenced to death for the 1997 mur­ders of four peo­ple, includ­ing his broth­er, Mr. Corcoran has a long his­to­ry of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. He has been diag­nosed with schiz­o­phre­nia, which includes symp­toms of hal­lu­ci­na­tions and delu­sions, and mul­ti­ple experts have tes­ti­fied that he is incom­pe­tent to face exe­cu­tion. Mr. Corcoran holds…

Secrecy

,

Upcoming Executions

,

Botched Executions

,

Lethal Injection

,

Nov 22, 2024

New Resource: In Era of Secrecy, States Increasingly Restrict Media Access to Executions

On December 18, Joseph Corcoran is sched­uled to be the first per­son exe­cut­ed by Indiana offi­cials in 15 years. For the first time, the state will use a sin­gle drug, pen­to­bar­bi­tal, which comes from an unknown source and has been known to cause pris­on­ers ​“excru­ci­at­ing” pain dur­ing exe­cu­tions. But no media wit­ness­es will be present to relay what hap­pens to the pub­lic. Indiana is an out­lier in its pol­i­cy deci­sion to com­plete­ly exclude the press from wit­ness­ing exe­cu­tions in the state. But a…

Mental Illness

,

Conditions on Death Row

,

Race

,

Oct 24, 2024

New Analysis: Death-Sentenced Prisoners ​“Volunteer” for Execution at Ten Times Civilian Suicide Rate

Derrick Dearman first told his moth­er that he want­ed to die when he was four years old. On October 17, he was exe­cut­ed by the state of Alabama, becom­ing the 20th per­son exe­cut­ed in the United States this year and the 165th in the mod­ern era to ​“vol­un­teer” for death. A new analy­sis by the Death Penalty Information Center shows that despite falling rates of death sen­tences, exe­cu­tions, and pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty, the num­ber of death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers waiv­ing their appeals and…