(Indianapolis, IN) - State authorities are looking to resume executions in Indiana prisons, starting with a convicted murderer.

 

On Wednesday Governor Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita issued a joint statement on their intent to enforce the death penalty after a recent hiatus.

 

They say it’s taken years to acquire a drug approved for executions. The Indiana Department of Correction has recenly acquired pentobarbital, which is a sedative often used to treat insomnia, anxiety, and seizures.  They plan to use a lethal dose of it on Joseph Corcoran who was found guilty of four murders back in 1997. He’s been on Death Row since 2016.

 

“In Indiana, state law authorizes the death penalty as a means of providing justice for victims of society’s most heinous crimes and holding perpetrators accountable,” Attorney General Rokita said. “Further, it serves as an effective deterrent for certain potential offenders who might otherwise commit similar extreme crimes of violence. Now that the Indiana Department of Correction is prepared to carry out the lawfully imposed sentence, it’s incumbent on our justice system to immediately enable executions in our prisons to resume."

 

The Indiana ACLU is opposed to the development, posing this comment on X: "We’re deeply concerned with the decision by Governor Holcomb and Attorney General Rokita to resume executions in Indiana. The death penalty lacks public support, is rooted in racism and is prone to serious errors. A government should never execute its citizens. Full stop."

 

The state has not executed a person in 15 years. The last death sentence was carried out by lethal injection at the state prison in Michigan City in 2009.