The Indiana Supreme Court set deadlines for briefings in the case of Joseph Corcoran in the days since his attorneys filed for a stay of execution.
Chief Justice Loretta Rush ordered the state to respond to Corcoran’s requests by Tuesday, and then for Corcoran’s attorneys to reply back to the state by Dec. 3.
All of this comes less than a month before Corcoran is scheduled to be executed for a quadruple murder that occurred in Fort Wayne in 1998.
An execution date of Dec. 18 was set for Corcoran this fall after Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita requested one. The case was hung up in legal limbo for decades, and difficulties obtaining the drugs used for lethal injections prolonged it.
In requesting both post-conviction relief and a stay of execution, Corcoran’s attorneys argue his persistent paranoid schizophrenia with its delusions and hallucinations makes him incompetent to be executed because he does not have a rational understanding of the reasons for his execution, according to court documents.
