INDIANAPOLIS — Faith and community leaders will gather at the Statehouse Sunday to urge Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb to not restart executions in the state.
It comes as a Fort Wayne man is set to be the first inmate executed by Indiana in nearly 15 years next month.
In July 1997, Joseph Corcoran grabbed a gun and shot his brother, his sister's fiancé and two of their friends.
Corcoran was convicted of killing all four and was sentenced to death in 1999. For 25 years, Corcoran has sat on death row, but now he's scheduled to be executed on Dec. 18.
David Frank works with the Indiana Abolition Coalition, an organization that works to end the death penalty. He said the last execution carried out by the state was in 2009 and, since then, a lot has changed.
"Two of the adjoining states, Illinois and Michigan, have abolished the death penalty and the two other adjoining states, Ohio and Kentucky, have taken capital punishment off the table for people that are mentally ill, so Indiana stands alone," said Frank.
Frank said Corcoran falls into the mental illness category.
"Already, people who are incompetent or have intellectual disabilities cannot be executed, but there's no reason for someone who can't understand what the circumstances of their execution is, there's no reason for the state to decide to go forward and take that person's life," said Frank.
As 13News has previously reported, the state decided to resume executions after acquiring pentobarbital, the drug administered to carry out the death penalty.
"Within the last 25 years, within the last 15 years, again, nothing has changed in any of these cases. In all these eight defendants on death row, they've all been convicted, and they've all been sitting there the last 15 years. And if the state, hopefully very soon, abolishes the death penalty, they will continue to be there. The status will be unchanged," explained Frank.
13News reached out to the governor and the attorney general for an interview but did not hear back.
The rally is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 17 at the Indiana Statehouse.