Indiana has executed Joseph Edward Corcoran, 49, for committing a quadruple murder in 1997.
When asked if he had anything to say before dying, Corcoran said, "Not really. Let's get this over with," reported USA TODAY. It was Indiana's first execution in 15 years.
Corcoran killed his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran; his sister's fiancé, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner; and their two friends, 30-year-old Timothy Bricker and 30-year-old Douglas Stillwell with a semi-automatic rifle, the newspaper reported.
Corcoran lived with his sister and older brother in Fort Wayne at the time of the murders. Corcoran's attorneys had sought to stop the execution based on Corcoran's 1999 paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis.
"If Corcoran was not mentally ill, the crimes never would have happened," Corcoran's attorney Larry Komp, said to USA TODAY.
Corcoran's sister, Kelly Ernst, addressed her brother's execution in a Facebook post.
"Nearly 30 years have passed since the events occurred, and only afterwards was Joe diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. At the time of his actions, I was too naïve, self-absorbed, and uneducated to recognize his condition for what it was," she wrote. "Joe has expressed remorse and regret in written correspondence, and I have forgiven him. I assume he is now on medication for his condition. I will not attend his execution, neither as family or as victim as I believe it would take a piece of me that I will not get back."
The shooting happened on July 26, 1997, when Corcoran laid down on his bedroom floor and heard men's voices downstairs through the floor, USA TODAY reported. Corcoran thought the men were talking about him, grabbed the rifle, went downstairs, and confronted them before opening fire.
