A death row inmate’s last words were “let’s get this over with” before he became the first person to be executed in the US state of Indiana in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, died by lethal injection on Wednesday for the 1997 murders of his brother, his sister’s fiancee and two other men.
He had been on death row since 1999 and was executed despite his legal team and campaigners appealing to Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb to use his powers to grant clemency.
In a petition to the federal courts, including the US Supreme Court, the quadruple murderer’s lawyers maintained that he suffered from “severe and longstanding paranoid schizophrenia”.
They added that this was documented in self-published books from prison in which he described being subject to “ultrasonic surveillance”.
Deputy public defender Joanna Green said on Tuesday: “If the courts do not stay the execution, we are asking Gov Holcomb to grant clemency to Joe, a seriously mentally ill man.”
It came a day after a federal appeals court ruled that Corcoran was mentally fit enough to be executed.
Anti-death penalty groups had spent the past few days demonstrating outside Indiana’s state capitol building which houses the office of Mr Holcomb, the Indiana General Assembly and the Indiana Supreme Court.
They also delivered letters to Mr Holcomb’s office urging him to grant clemency.
Holcomb’s office did not immediately respond to a request from Sky News’ US partner network NBC News on Tuesday.
The governor announced in June that the state had procured pentobarbital, a sedative used in lethal injections, after “years of effort”.
He said at the time: “Accordingly, I am fulfilling my duties as governor to follow the law and move forward appropriately in this matter.”
Image: An undated photo of Joseph Corcoran. Pic: AP
Corcoran’s last meal
The Indiana Department of Correction began the execution process shortly after midnight local time on Wednesday and Corcoran was pronounced dead around 44 minutes later.
The department said his last words were: “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”
Corcoran requested Ben & Jerry’s ice cream as his last meal, the department added.
Ahead of the execution, anti-death penalty campaigners criticised the Indiana Department of Correction for carrying out the process without media witnesses.
Of the 27 states that still allow for capital punishment, only Indiana and Wyoming exclude media witnesses, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.
Before the execution, David Frank, the president of the Indiana Abolition Coalition, made reference to Christmas when he said: “One week before we welcome the light of the Prince of Peace into the world… the state in secret, under cover of darkness, plans to take the life of Mr Corcoran.”
Meanwhile, Corcoran’s sister Kelly Ernst, whose fiancee Robert Scott Turner was one of his victims, said she believes the death penalty should be abolished and criticised the state’s decision to execute her brother a week before Christmas.
Ms Ernst said: “My sister and I, our birthdays are in December… I mean, it just feels like it’s going to ruin Christmas for the rest of our lives. That’s just what it feels like.”
What was Corcoran convicted of?
Corcoran was 22 when he fatally shot his brother James, 30, at the home they shared in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
He also killed Turner, 32, and friends Douglas Stillwell and Timothy Bricker, both 30.
Five years earlier, Corcoran was acquitted of the murders of his parents, Jack and Kathryn Corcoran, after jurors found not enough evidence to convict.
Mature, developed economies like the UK and US became ever more reliant on cheap imports from China and, in the process, saw their manufacturing sectors shrink.
Large swathes of the rust belt in the US – and much of the Midlands and North of England – were hollowed out.
And to some extent that’s where the story of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” really began – with the notion that free trade and globalisation had a darker side, a side he wants to remedy via tariffs.
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
6:39
Trump’s tariffs: Ed Conway analysis
He imposed a set of tariffs in his first term, some on China, some on specific materials like steel and aluminium. But the height and the breadth of those tariffs were as nothing compared with the ones we have just heard about.
Not since the 1930s has the US so radically increased the level of tariffs on all nations across the world. Back then, those tariffs exacerbated the Great Depression.
It’s anyone’s guess as to what the consequences of these ones will be. But there will be consequences.
Consequences for the nature of globalisation, consequences for the US economy (tariffs are exceptionally inflationary), consequences for geopolitics.
Image: Imports from the UK will face a 10% tariff, while EU goods will see 20% rates. Pic: Reuters
And to some extent, merely knowing that little bit more about the White House’s plans will deliver a bit of relief to financial markets, which have fretted for months about the imposition of tariffs. That uncertainty recently reached unprecedented levels.
But don’t for a moment assume that this saga is over. Nothing of the sort. In the coming days, we will learn more – more about the nuts and bolts of these policies, more about the retaliatory measures coming from other countries.
We will, possibly, get more of a sense about whether some countries – including the UK – will enjoy reprieves from the tariffs.
To paraphrase Churchill, this isn’t the end of the trade war, or even the beginning of the end – perhaps just the end of the beginning.
Actors, directors and celebrity friends have paid tribute to Val Kilmer, after he died aged 65.
The California-born star of Top Gun, Batman and Heat died of pneumonia on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told the Associated Press.
She said Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.
Tributes flooded in after reports broke of the actor’s death, with No Country For Old Men star Josh Brolin among the first to share their memories.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:49
Watch: Val Kilmer in his most iconic roles
He wrote on Instagram: “See ya, pal. I’m going to miss you. You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those.
“I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there. Until then, amazing memories, lovely thoughts.”
Instagram
This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Instagram cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Instagram cookies for this session only.
Kyle Maclachlan, who co-starred with Kilmer in the 1991 biopic The Doors, wrote on social media: “You’ll always be my Jim. See you on the other side my friend.”
More from Ents & Arts
Michael Mann, who directed Kilmer in 1995’s Heat, also paid tribute in a statement, saying: “I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character.
“After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news.”
Instagram
This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Instagram cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Instagram cookies for this session only.
Heat co-star Danny Trejo also called Kilmer “a great actor, a wonderful person, and a dear friend of mine” on Instagram.
Instagram
This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Instagram cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Instagram cookies for this session only.
Cher, who once dated the actor, said on X that “U Were Funny, crazy, pain in the ass, GREAT FRIEND… BRILLIANT as Mark Twain, BRAVE here during ur sickness”.
Lifelong friend and director of Twixt, Francis Ford Coppola said: “Val Kilmer was the most talented actor when in his High School, and that talent only grew greater throughout his life.
“He was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know – I will always remember him.”
Instagram
This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Instagram cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Instagram cookies for this session only.
The Top Gun account on X also said it was remembering Kilmer, who starred as Iceman in both the 1986 original and 2022 sequel, and “whose indelible cinematic mark spanned genres and generations”.
X
This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow X cookies for this session only.
Elon Musk has called reports that he will leave his government role in the coming months “fake news”.
A senior White House official previously told NBC News, Sky’s US partner network, that Donald Trump had discussed the Tesla and X boss transitioning back to the private sector at a cabinet meeting last month.
Image: The Tesla boss has headed DOGE since 20 January. File pic: Reuters
After reports emerged of the meeting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was “garbage” and added: “Elon Musk and President Trump have both publicly stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.”
Mr Musk added in response on X: “Yeah, fake news.”
NBC News reported that the official said Mr Musk would leave at the end of his 130 days as a special government employee.
That would be 30 May, but it is unclear if the billionaire businessman will indeed leave on that date.
Previously, the White House said that as a temporary organisation, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would be terminated on 4 July next year – the 250th anniversary of the US.
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
It comes days after Mr Musk said some members of his DOGE team were getting death threats on a daily basis.
Mr Muskhad drawn criticism over his efforts to downsize the US federal government.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:36
‘Elon Musk has got to go’
In just weeks, entire agencies were dismantled, and tens of thousands of workers from the 2.3 million federal workforce have been fired or have agreed to leave their jobs.
A number of lawsuits were filed in state and federal courts over cuts recommended by DOGE.