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The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in Tuesday in the capital murder case against Joseph E. Corcoran, sending it back to the U.S. Court of Appeals and delaying the state’s desire to put the quadruple murderer to death.
On Dec. 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit in Chicago reinstated the death penalty against Corcoran, in a 2-1 ruling overturning the decision of a northern Indiana U.S. District judge, the late Allen Sharp.
In 1999, a jury convicted the then-22-year-old Corcoran on four counts of murder. Corcoran shot and killed his brother, James Corcoran, 30; his sister’s fiancé, Robert Scott Turner, 32; and two of his brother’s friends, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30, at a Bayer Avenue home in July 1997.
Corcoran, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to death.
In the years since the trial, the case has taken many twists and turns through state and federal courts.
Corcoran and his attorneys have argued a sentencing error, violations of his Sixth Amendment rights to a trial, prosecutorial misconduct at sentencing, the state’s capital punishment statute is unconstitutional and that he should not be executed because he suffers from a mental illness, according to court documents.
After his conviction, Corcoran failed to timely file a petition to have the trial court review his case, refusing to sign the paperwork because he believed he should be put to death for his crimes, according to court documents.
At a competency hearing in October 2003, three experts testified Corcoran suffered from paranoid schizophrenia but that he had the capacity to understand his legal position, according to court documents.
Allen Superior Court Judge Fran C. Gull found him competent when he decided to bypass the trial court review of his case, a decision upheld by the Indiana Supreme Court.
But Corcoran changed his mind in early 2005 and tried unsuccessfully to seek a trial court review of his case, according to court documents.
He then filed a petition in federal court but changed his mind again, saying he never wanted to appeal his sentence, according to court documents.
Against Corcoran’s wishes, Sharp overturned the death sentence, ruling that then-Allen County Prosecutor Robert Gevers inappropriately punished Corcoran by pursuing the death penalty against Corcoran after he declined to have a judge hear his case and asked for a jury trial, violating his Sixth Amendment rights.
When the 7th Circuit issued its ruling in December, it dealt only with the Sixth Amendment question, the only one dealt with by Sharp.
But in the recent ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the 7th Circuit erred by not addressing all of Corcoran’s other issues, either in its first ruling or in a later request for another hearing. The nation’s highest court ordered the appellate court to address those issues, which could come in a written ruling or after further hearings.
The case could also end up back in the U.S. District Court for Indiana’s northern district, since Sharp also passed on addressing those issues, declaring them moot. But Sharp died in July, so if the case comes back to the lower court, it would be reviewed by a new judge.
A spokesman for Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, whose office has handled the case on appeal, said it is pleased with the 7th Circuit’s original decision. “We are disappointed that additional litigation is necessary before this case can be concluded,” spokesman Bryan Corbin said, adding the decision may have added between one to three years to the case.
A message left for Corcoran’s Missouri-based attorney Laurence E. Komp was not returned Tuesday afternoon.
Five years before the deaths of Corcoran’s brother and the three others, a Steuben County jury acquitted Corcoran of charges he killed his parents.
