According to a report in the Times of Northwest Indiana, Joseph E. Corcoran, a Fort Wayne man convicted in 1999 of murdering four people, has been sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of Indiana. The execution, set for December 18, will be carried out by lethal injection at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, marking the first state execution since 2009.

Corcoran, 49, who has been on death row for over two decades, has exhausted his legal appeals, according to a unanimous decision written by Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush. The court determined that there are no remaining legal barriers to delay the execution, following statements from both Attorney General Todd Rokita and Governor Eric Holcomb indicating their readiness to proceed.

“The court finds there is no stay of execution now in effect,” Rush wrote, emphasizing that the only matter remaining for the court was to set the execution date.

Corcoran’s legal team argued that his execution would violate the Indiana Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment due to his mental health conditions, including paranoid schizophrenia, delusions, and hallucinations.

However, the court rejected this argument, noting that the claim was not based on new evidence, but rather on previously presented information about his mental illness. The justices were firm in their ruling, stating that the law limits consideration to new, undiscovered evidence, which was not present in Corcoran’s case.

Additionally, Corcoran challenged the state’s lethal injection protocol. The court suggested that this issue might be addressed through a separate civil lawsuit but did not provide a ruling on the matter in its current form.

If carried out as scheduled, Corcoran will become the 21st individual executed in Indiana since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1977. The state also houses the federal death chamber at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, where 16 federal executions have taken place since 2001, the most recent occurring in 2021.

Three other men on Indiana’s death row are also nearing the end of their appeals, with the possibility of execution dates being set in the near future, according to the Indiana Public Defender Council.