After 'Years of Effort,' Indiana's Death Penalty May Resume

The state of Indiana hasn't put someone to death in 15 years, but that streak is soon about to be broken. GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb announced on Wednesday that he and fellow Republican Todd Rokita, the state's attorney general, are seeking to execute 49-year-old Joseph Corcoran, with Rokita filing a motion with the Indiana Supreme Court to set a date for the execution, per the AP.

• The death row inmate: Corcoran was found guilty of killing four people in 1997, including his brother, and his federal appeals quest ended in 2016. Per the Death Penalty Information Center, Indiana's last execution took place in 2009.

• Death penalty delay: So why the lengthy hiatus, considering Indiana's death penalty has remained in effect this entire time? FOX59 notes it's been challenging for the state to get its hands on the drugs used in a lethal-injection cocktail, including methohexital, potassium chloride, and pancuronium bromide. The makers of those drugs don't want their product tied to executions.
• A new development: Now, however, after "years of effort," officials at the Indiana Department of Correction finally obtained an alternative, per Holcomb: the sedative pentobarbital. Now that Indiana has a drug that can be used for lethal injections, "I am fulfilling my duties as governor to follow the law and move forward appropriately," Holcomb said Wednesday.
• Rokita's take: "State law authorizes the death penalty as a means of providing justice for victims of society's most heinous crimes and holding perpetrators accountable."
• Critics: It's unclear where authorities acquired the drug, and not everyone is happy about that murkiness. "It's completely outrageous the governor thinks the state can enact the ultimate punishment without providing any insight to the public" on the pentobarbital's origins, David Frank, head of the anti-death penalty Indiana Abolition Coalition, tells the Indianapolis Star.
• Stats: There are currently eight people on death row in Indiana. Meanwhile, the DPIC notes that 14 states have used pentobarbital to put prisoners to death.

(More Indiana stories.)