(Indianapolis, IN) - The first execution of an Indiana prison inmate since 2009 is scheduled before the end of the year.

 

Joseph Corcoran, 49, is on death row at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City for the 1997 shooting deaths of two family members and their two friends in the Ft. Wayne area.

 

In June, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita asked the Indiana Supreme Court to set an execution date for Corcoran, saying his appeals were exhausted and the state had obtained the necessary drugs to carry out a lethal injection.

 

The state’s highest court recently granted the request and ordered the execution be carried out on December 18 before “the hour of sunrise.”

 

A shortage of legal injection drugs and other issues are cited as reasons why there hasn’t been an execution in the state over the past 15 years.