The U.S. Court of Appeals late Monday denied a request to stay Indiana death row inmate Joseph Corcoran’s execution, which is scheduled to take place before sunrise Wednesday.
Joseph Corcoran’s legal team is asking a federal judge to step in and pause the execution to allow for a hearing and review of their claims that putting the inmate to death is unconstitutional.
The court’s ruling emphasized that concerns raised by defense counsel over Joseph Corcoran’s mental health have already “been thoroughly litigated in both state and federal courts.” Those prior court proceedings concluded that Corcoran was competent to waive his post-conviction options.
In new court documents, Joseph Corcoran’s legal team doubled down that the Indiana death row inmate’s “severe” mental illness has prevented him from properly requesting post-conviction relief.
About two weeks away from scheduled execution, Indiana death row inmate Joseph Corcoran’s last-ditch attempts to quash his capital punishment sentence are still up in the air.
Attorneys for convicted murderer Joseph Corcoran on Friday filed for a stay of execution, arguing it’s cruel and unusual punishment to execute someone who is seriously mentally ill.
The Indiana Department of Correction has refused to disclose how much the state paid to acquire a new execution drug, pentobarbital, that could be used to carry out at least one death warrant before the end of the year.
Counsel for Benjamin Ritchie, a man convicted in 2002 of murdering Beech Grove Police Officer William Toney, have until Nov. 1 to file a clemency request in response to the state’s motion to set an execution date, Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush wrote in an Oct. 3 order.
The Supreme Court is taking the bench again on Monday, ready to hear cases on ghost guns, a death sentence and transgender rights.
Larry Komp, lead attorney for death row inmate Joseph Corcoran’s legal team, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle his client is seeking a last plea with a clemency petition, however. Komp said he plans to visit with Corcoran — who’s currently being held at the Indiana State Prison— and file the necessary paperwork this week.
Experts say five executions being scheduled within one week is simply an anomaly that resulted from courts or elected officials in individual states setting dates around the same time after inmates exhausted their appeals.
The Indiana Supreme Court set the date for inmate Joseph E. Corcoran’s death Wednesday.
Williams, 55, is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 24 for the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle in the St. Louis suburb of University City. St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton on Wednesday will preside over an evidentiary hearing challenging Williams’ guilt. But the key piece of evidence to support Williams is DNA testing that is no longer viable.
A Florida man scheduled to be put to death on Thursday is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution so that his challenge to Florida’s lethal injection procedures can be heard.
A Texas man described as intellectually disabled by his lawyers faced execution on Wednesday for strangling and trying to rape a woman who went jogging near her Houston home more than 27 years ago.
Earlier this month, Corcoran’s lawyers said in court filing that he is “unquestionably seriously mentally ill” and therefore should not be subject to the death penalty.
The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for a Texas man shortly before he was to receive a lethal injection in a killing decades ago.
The Commission on Court Appointed Attorneys is requesting public comment on recommendations to the state’s death penalty rule.
Attorneys for Indiana death row inmate Joseph Corcoran appealed the state’s request for an execution date on Thursday, maintaining that he is “unquestionably seriously mentally ill” and therefore should not be subject to the death penalty.
After state officials announced last week that Indiana will resume executions for the first time in over a decade, secrecy largely shrouds the new drug, pentobarbital, acquired for the impending lethal injections.