The state of Indiana made a massive, historic announcement this week after it revealed that it set a date for the first execution in the state in 15 years.
According to U.S. News & World Report, the last execution in the state took place in 2009, stats from the Death Penalty Information Center indicated.
The last person executed in the state was Matthew Wrinkles, who was executed for "murdering his wife, her brother and sister-in-law."
The pause wasn't regarding politics like it is in other states, rather, it was because of a shortage of the ingredients required for such procedures.
The governor announced that the newly scheduled execution was due to the new availability of the lethal cocktail required to perform an execution.
The outlet reported:
Gov. Eric Holcomb said in June that the state Department of Correction had acquired the sedative pentobarbital, a drug multiple states use in lethal injections, and asked the Supreme Court to set a date for Corcoran's execution.
Joseph Corcoran, who was convicted "in July 1997 killings of his brother, James Corcoran; 30-year-old Douglas A. Stillwell; 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner; and 30-year-old Timothy Bricker," is scheduled for execution for Dec. 18, before sunrise.
Indiana Supreme Court sets Dec. 18 execution date for Joseph Corcoran https://t.co/LUjOjbgKKa via @INCapChronicle
— Karine Omry (@KarineOmry) September 12, 2024
Corcoran has been on death row since 1999, and his appeals options ran out in 2016, which eventually set his fate for a death row execution.
The outlet added:
He had argued that the execution would be unconstitutional because he suffers from a mental illness and that the state had failed to disclose its execution protocol.
The availability of the lethal injection was just announced earlier this year by Gov. Eric Holcomb.
"After years, the Indiana Department of Correction has acquired a drug - pentobarbital – which can be used to carry out executions. Accordingly, I am fulfilling my duties to follow the law and seek an execution date for convicted murderer Joseph Corcoran," Holcomb wrote on X.
His announcement generated a response on X from both anti-death penalty people and those who support the death penalty.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We Hoosiers have been toting his bill long enough," one X user wrote at the time.
