Indiana
Corcoran's attorneys ask federal judge to block execution
by: Brady Gibson & Ashley Fowler, WISH-TV
Posted: / Updated:
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Attorneys for Joseph Corcoran have asked a federal judge in northern Indiana to stop next week’s scheduled execution.
Corcoran’s legal team filed the request Wednesday for a stay of execution.
Corcoran is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 18 for his conviction on four murders in Allen County.
The filing renews the claim that Corcoran is too severely mentally ill to be eligible for capital punishment.
He has been diagnosed with delusions and paranoid schizophrenia.
His attorneys say Corcoran believes prison guards are using an ultrasound machine to torture him.
“In other words, Mr. Corcoran seeks to be executed—in fact, he is eager to be executed— because he sees it as his escape from the guards’ ultrasonic torture and his disorder,” Corcoran’s attorneys wrote in the court filing. “It is an irrational belief, and it is one that has infiltrated every part of his life. It even pervaded his trial, where he rejected a life plea offer because the State would not acquiesce to his demands and sever his vocal cords so that his disorder could not force him to broadcast his thoughts. “
The Indiana Supreme Court has twice rejected requests to stop Corcoran’s execution because of his mental illness.
Corcoran has also written to the courts, asking that all appeals be stopped and that he be put to death.