FROM INDIANA PUBLIC BROADCASTING
Officials in Indiana executed a prisoner early this morning. State officials say Joseph Corcoran was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m.
Hours before midnight, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reconsider lower court rulings related to Corcoran’s mental health. His attorneys argued that symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia made him ineligible for execution.
The execution began after 12:30 a.m. and ended at 12:44, according to state officials and a journalist who witnessed the execution.
Indiana doesn’t open up executions to reporters but Corcoran allowed Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Casey Smith to attend as his guest. Indiana media organizations condemned the restrictions in a letter to the governor.
After the execution, Attorney General Todd Rokita said that his office fought to carry out the execution, and that the corrections department carried it out professionally.
Rokita’s office is also seeking to execute a second death row prisoner.
Before today (Wednesday), the state’s most recent execution was in 2009.
