INDIANAPOLIS – Gov. Eric Holcomb doubled down Thursday on the state’s move to seek an execution date for Fort Wayne’s Joseph Corcoran, who was convicted of murdering four people in 1997.
Holcomb’s comments came one day after he and Attorney General Todd Rokita announced that the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC) has obtained the drug necessary to carry out the death penalty.
“We’ve tried to acquire the means to carry out our duty, and to follow along, and carry out the law,” Holcomb said. “And we’re in a position to do that. So we are.”
Indiana’s top elected officials filed the execution request with the Indiana Supreme Court on Wednesday. Holcomb and Rokita signaled, jointly, that more executions could be imminent, depending on the availability of lethal injection drugs.
When asked where DOC acquired the drug — pentobarbital, which can be used to carry out executions – and how much the state paid, the governor said he “can’t go into those details, by law.”
Lawmakers made information about the source of the drugs confidential on the last day of the 2017 legislative session. Indiana Capital Chronicle is still seeking the cost of the drugs.
It’s been 15 years since Indiana’s last execution, in 2009. There are currently eight men on Indiana’s death row, including Corcoran. No one has been added to the state’s death row since 2014.
It appears the state will follow in the steps of Texas, which uses a single-drug protocol of Pentobarbital for an execution. Holcomb said that although the method has never been used in Indiana, he’s “comfortable” with the option.
Read more of the Casey Smith story for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, here.
