The Indiana Supreme C𒁃ourt has set the date fo෴r the first state execution in 15 years.
The court ordered Wednesday that Joseph Corcoran be executed befor𓃲e sunrise on Dec. 18, .
Indiana’s last state execution was in 2009, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, when Matthew Wrinkles was executed for murdering his wife, her brother and sister-in-law.
The yearslong pause has been attributed to the unav♎ailability of drugs𝔉 used in lethal injections.
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.
Corcoran, 49, was convicted in July 1997 killings of hꦏis brother, James Corcoran; 30-year-old Douglas A. Stillwell; 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner; and 30-year-old Timothy Bricker.
Corcoran has been on death row since 1999.
He exhausted his appeals in 2016.
He had✃ argued that the execution wo♊uld be unconstitutional because he suffers from a mental illness and that the state had failed to disclose its execution protocol.
The first federal execution in 17 years at the time wa๊s carr𒈔ied out at a federal prison in Indiana in 2020.