Indiana

Anti-death penalty advocates rally at Indiana Statehouse against resuming state executions

Published

1 year ago

November 17, 2024

Anti-death penalty advocates rally at Indiana Statehouse against resuming state executions

When her son was taken from her by gun violence at 28 years old, Crystal Walker felt the anger first. She said she wished the person responsible would die.

But after a few weeks, Walker, who’s now a chaplain at the Indiana Women’s Prison, realized that would mean another parent would have to go through what she went through. And that felt wrong, she said.

“Even if that person is a mass murderer and murders other people, we don’t have the right to figure out when, where, how someone else dies,” she said on the steps of the Indiana Statehouse Sunday afternoon, where dozens gathered to protest Gov. Eric Holcomb’s decision to resume state executions in Indiana after a 15-year hiatus.

“That’s God’s business, right there,” Walker said.

Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita announced in June that they were seeking to resume executions in Indiana state prisons, starting with Joseph Corcoran, who was convicted of murdering four people in Allen County in 1997. The Indiana Supreme Court scheduled Corcoran’s execution for Dec. 18.

President-elect Donald Trump had also signaled during his campaign that he would not only resume federal executions but expand who is eligible for them.

The Indiana Abolition Coalition and Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty organized the rally to urge Holcomb to stop Corcoran’s execution and end capital punishment in Indiana, arguing that it’s undignified, morally wrong and, in an appeal to Hoosiers’ practicality, expensive for taxpayers.

Bill Breeden, a minister emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington and a longtime anti-death penalty activist, called on Holcomb to go to the death chamber and witness Corcoran’s execution, if he won’t stop it.

“There is no other premeditated, cold-blooded murder like that in the world,” he said. “None.”

In their announcement, Holcomb said the Department of Corrections had recently acquired a lethal injection drug called pentobarbital, “after years of effort.”

Speaking to reporters days after the announcement, Holcomb would not divulge details about the source or cost of the drug ― information state legislators have made confidential under state law. Holcomb said he thinks executions are “appropriate in these rare cases of heinous crimes,” the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported.

“When such evil is on display, I personally believe in this,” he said.

Rokita, who ran successfully for reelection this fall, said in the news release that the death penalty is a “means of providing justice for victims of society’s most heinous crimes and holding perpetrators accountable.”

In September, Rokita filed another motion seeking an execution date, this time for Benjamin Ritchie, a man convicted in the shooting death of Beech Grove police officer William Toney in 2000.

Matthew Wrinkles, an Evansville man convicted of killing his wife and two of her family members in 1994, was the last person to be executed in Indiana, in 2009.

Joseph Corcoran’s case had many twists and turns

In 1997, 22-year-old Joseph Corcoran was living with his brother, James Corcoran, his sister, Kelly Nieto, and her fiancé, Robert Turner.

On July 26, according to Corcoran, he was upstairs and overheard his brother and Turner talking about him with some friends ― Timothy Bricker and Doug Stillwell ― in the living room. He put his 7-year-old niece in an upstairs bedroom, grabbed his semiautomatic rifle and fatally shot the four men downstairs. Then he went to a neighbor’s house and asked them to call the police.

A jury convicted Corcoran on four counts of murder in 1999, and the trial court sentenced him to death.

Corcoran’s mental health has been a recurring issue through his case. Before his trial in Allen County, his defense initially filed a notice that they would assert an insanity defense. But after court-ordered doctors evaluated him, the defense withdrew the notice, and the court found him competent to stand trial.

The Indiana Supreme Court initially threw out Corcoran’s death penalty sentence over a concern with the trial court’s process but later affirmed the sentence after the trial court reinstated it. When at first Corcoran wouldn’t sign a petition for post-conviction relief in 2003, his defense requested another psychological evaluation to determine whether Corcoran was competent to make this decision. While the experts found Corcoran suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, the court determined Corcoran was nonetheless competent to waive his relief because he demonstrated that he clearly understood the status of his case and the consequences of his decision.

In 2005, Corcoran changed his mind and tried to file for post-conviction relief, but it was too late. That year, he also filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the federal District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, claiming the state violated his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial during pre-trial negotiations. The district court granted the petition, but a federal appeals court reversed it.

Corcoran exhausted his appeals in 2016. He’s one of eight people on Indiana’s death row.

Corcoran’s legal team makes mental health argument

In a statement Indiana Abolition Coalition president David Frank read on the statehouse steps Sunday, Corcoran’s legal team argued that this death penalty sentence would not have happened if not for Corcoran’s mental illness.

Corcoran’s refusal to accept either of the prosecutor’s plea bargains ― a guilty plea in exchange for life without parole or a bench trial without the death penalty ― was a “product” of his mental illness, they wrote. They described intense delusions and hallucinations they said he experienced as a result of his paranoid schizophrenia and said friends and neighbors noticed “strange behavior” long before his trial, including seeing him talking to himself and nodding his head.

“He views his execution not as a punishment but as a means to escape his constant suffering,” the statement read. “This is a product of his irrationality, not an indication of his competency.”

Two of Indiana’s neighboring states, Ohio and Kentucky, ban capital punishment for those who had a serious mental health condition at the time of their crime.

Protesters receive a message from another inmate on death row

Rejon Taylor, a prisoner on federal death row in Terre Haute, had a message for Sunday’s protestors that Laura Lasuertmer, his minister of record, read aloud.

Taylor wondered if Corcoran, like himself, goes back and forth between wanting to live in bleak conditions or hasten his own death to put an end to it. He wondered if Corcoran also ponders the “absurdity of people protesting his looming death a little too late,” when the help he needed most was during childhood.

“If we as a society fail to embrace our children, including the marginalized and disadvantaged, when they grow older, they will burn society down to feel its warmth,” Taylor wrote. “And your protests at state capitols, or wherever you hold them, will continue in vain, the root issue still unaddressed.”

After the rally, participants lined up to ring a large bell that was originally made in 1992 for the Delaware Citizens Opposed to the Death Penalty, who would ring the bell every time there was a state execution. In September this year, the state of Delaware repealed its death penalty, freeing up the bell to travel to other states.

On Sunday, the bell’s clang echoed over and over across the lawn of the Indiana Statehouse.

Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @kayla_dwyer17.

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Indiana

Elderly couple identified as the 2 killed in Lake Village, Indiana, during suspected tornado touchdown

Published

2 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Elderly couple identified as the 2 killed in Lake Village, Indiana, during suspected tornado touchdown

An elderly couple died after a possible tornado ripped through the town.

The couple’s family said they’re shocked that Tuesday night’s tornado leveled their grandparents’ home and took their lives.

“Obviously, we’ve never seen anything remotely resembling this,” said son-in-law Steve Rhefeldt.

A place that Ed Kozlowski, 89, and his wife, Arlene, 86, once called home is now gone.

“They were wonderful, just really wonderful human beings. You know, tough old guy and sweet old lady,” he said.

The Indiana Urban Search and Rescue team was spotted on Wednesday sifting through the debris along with Rhefeldt and his son, Matthew, who traveled from Peotone to see the damage.

The elderly couple was unable to get out of the debris alive. Relatives believe that everything happened within the blink of an eye.

“They’ve lived a good life, and boy, you kind of… I have to imagine this was just “hey, what’s going on?” and it was over that quick,” Steve said.

The family said they were in the process of planning Ed’s 90th birthday at the home the couple had lived in for years. Everything the couple built is now gone.

“We were talking on the way here. These cars, there’s big heavy V8 engines in big trucks, and the wind is literally taking his car, which was parked somewhere, maybe right there, and taking it and flipping it upside down,” Steve said.

The couple had four kids, seven grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Lake Village was left with extensive damage that crews are just starting to clear. Steven Travis said he survived the tornado but lost everything.

“Roof’s gone all in 20 seconds. I walked in the bedroom, got knocked down, climbed in the closet, and it was over. Come back out, climbed out, and the roof’s gone, everything. Trees are down, windows blowed out. Lost everything,” Steven said.

North Newton High School in Lake Village is serving as an emergency shelter for anyone displaced by the storm. The Lake Village Fire Department is also serving as a rallying point.

Newton County officials confirmed that more than 100 buildings were damaged in Lake Village and more than 30 were destroyed.

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Indiana

At least 4 tornadoes suspected of leaving trail of damage in Illinois, Indiana, NWS says

Published

14 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

At least 4 tornadoes suspected of leaving trail of damage in Illinois, Indiana, NWS says

CHICAGO (WLS) — Suspected tornadoes have left extensive damage in Kankakee County in Illinois and into neighboring Indiana Tuesday.

The storms also produced hail ranging in size from two to four inches, the National Weather Service said. The NWS said the largest hailstone produced was six inches in diameter, which fell in Kankakee. The NWS said the hailstone may be a state record for Illinois.

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The NWS said a supercell that went from Pontiac, Illinois to Pontiac, Indiana spawned at least four tornadoes in Pontiac and south of Kankakee in Illinois and Lake Village an Wheatfield in Indiana.

The NWS is sending survey teams to the area Wednesday to investigate the damage.

Search crews worked late into the night looking for people who may have been left trapped by the storm damage as severe weather hit the Kankakee area.

Apparent tornado in Kankakee, Illinois – March 10, 2026

The area in Aroma Park along Sandbar Road was one of the places hardest hit.

Dangerous weather ripped through the area leaving a path of destruction.

The powerful storms driving rain and gusting winds downed at least a half dozen power lines that were snapped in half by gusting winds.

One homeowner says the storm blew out windows and leveled a two-story barn.

A concrete silo was also destroyed.

The fire lieutenant says a man did have to be rescued from the basement of a home with heavy damage. But otherwise, I have not heard of any serious injuries from the storm.

The American Red Cross has set up a shelter at Kankakee Community College for those impacted by the storms.

The tornado damage stretches into Indiana.

There has also been major damage across the state line in Indiana. Most of the damage is in the town of Lake Village.

Video shows a number of homes and buildings destroyed.

The local fire department says a tornado had a wide path of destruction and continued for several miles.

So far, officials said there have been only a few minor injuries.

They said the tornado sirens went off with plenty of time to alert people in the area.

People impacted by the storm can go to North Newton High School for support.

People living in Kankakee described the hail as almost as large as their hands, pounding the pavement and causing extensive damage.

“As if I have a bulletproof car and somebody was, like, shooting a machine gun or something like that. That’s how hard it was hitting,” Jon Robicheaux said.

Some car windows were left shattered.

“It just kept tearing into my front windshield,” Robicheaux said. “The back went out first, and it kept hitting the front. And it constantly got damaged.”

He had to pull over to find shelter.

“And I was kind of scared a tornado would’ve came over me while I was parked because I couldn’t see anything,” Robicheaux said.

Some cars in the west suburbs were damaged, as well, after golf ball- to baseball-sized hail fell.

One large chunk of hail came down on Gabrielle Zinkel’s car as she was driving home to Homer Glen from work in Downers Grove, shattering her back windshield.

“It sounded exactly like bullets hitting your car. Like, I was like, did my windshield just get shot through? Like what just happened? Because I did not think. I was like, OK, I’m going to come through this with some dents. But I didn’t think that this thing would hit my windshield and crack it right open,” Zinkel said.

There was also heavy rain and hail in parts of the city.

The hail sent people scrambling around dusk.

ComEd said as of 5 a.m., about 27,000 customers were impacted by the storm, with power restored to all but about 4,000 customers. Those without power were mainly in Kankakee County.

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Indiana

Severe storm risk into tonight through early Wednesday morning

Published

1 day ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Severe storm risk into tonight through early Wednesday morning

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — We are monitoring the potential for severe weather into early Wednesday morning.

Tornado Watch in effect until EDT midnight March 10, 2026, for Benton, Newton, and Jasper counties.

Tuesday night: Please make sure you have your safety plan on standby into tonight through pre-dawn Wednesday morning. There is now a level 4/5 severe risk in northwest Indiana. Much of central Indiana remains in a level 2/5 risk.

The risk for significant tornadoes (EF2+) and very large hail (2″+) is greatest north of I-70 with any discrete cell(s) that maintain their-selves into mainly northern Indiana. There is also potential for a max expected intensity of an EF-3+ tornado within much (if not all) of the level 3 & 4 risk zone.

This does not mean that every storm will produce a tornado of that magnitude. It is simply highlighting area of highest concern for the possibility of such occurrence.

Now, given a modestly unstable environment into the pre-dawn hours Wednesday with stronger wind flow aloft, all hazards will remain possible into central Indiana. The significant severe threat here is much lower.

Overall, you need to have multiple ways of being able to get alerts tonight. Do not be scared, be prepared and you will be ok.

Wednesday: Beyond sunrise Wednesday, we will continue to track more in the way of showers and storms. The main area of the strong-severe storm risk looks to shift mainly southeast of Indy with damaging winds the primary concern through the morning into afternoon hours.

Rainfall amounts through Wednesday may amount to 1-2″ with locally higher amounts.

Highs to occur earlier in the day with numbers in the mid to upper 60s. Non-thunderstorm winds will also be quite breezy with gusts up to 30-35 MPH.

Thursday: Be prepared for quite a temperature shift into Thursday. We will start the day off with temperatures in the low 30 with 20s wind chills. Yeah, that will not feel great considering our recent stretch of more mild days. Highs will only get into the upper 40s.

7-Day Forecast: We look to warm back up into this weekend, but it will come with more active weather and breezy winds. Friday will feature highs in the mid to upper 50s with wind gusts up to 25-30 MPH. Highs look to tick back into the low 60s Sunday with more chances for rain. Then, temperatures really take a tumble into next Monday with highs only in the 30s and a chance for a rain/snow mix.