US state of Indiana carries out 1st execution in 15 years

By Serdar Dincel

ISTANBUL (AA) – A man convicted of murdering four people, including his brother and his sister's fiance, was executed in the US State of Indiana on Wednesday, marking the state's first execution in 15 years.

Joseph Corcoran, 49, was found guilty of the July 1997 shootings that killed his 30-year-old brother, James Corcoran; his sister’s fiance, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner; and two other men, 30-year-olds Timothy G. Bricker and Douglas A. Stillwell, according to CBS News.

Corcoran’s attorneys contested his death penalty sentence for years, arguing that he suffered from severe mental illness that impaired his ability to understand and make decisions.

Earlier this month, they petitioned the Indiana Supreme Court to halt the execution, but their request was denied.

Indiana's last state execution before this was in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles was executed for the 1994 murders of his wife, her brother, and her sister-in-law.

Although there have been 13 executions in Indiana since then, they were carried out by federal authorities at a federal prison in Terre Haute in 2020 and 2021.