Death penalty returns in Indiana after 15 years ‎

Joseph Corcoran, a 49-year-old inmate, was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday local time in the US state of Indiana. According to CNN and Al Jazeera, the US state of Indiana has resumed executions after a 15-year hiatus.

Corcoran's lawyers have consistently argued in court over the years that he suffers from a severe mental illness that affects his ability to understand and make decisions; they say that the execution of this person violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments due to his long-term paranoid schizophrenia.

They also stated that Corcoran's illness has not improved in the past two decades; and there is evidence in the Indiana Department of Prisons that he has resisted treatment.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Corcoran's execution was the 24th execution in the United States this year; Indiana is the ninth state to carry out at least one execution in 2024. In addition to federal executions, the death penalty is carried out in 27 of the 50 states.

At the same time, although the United States claims to be opposed to the use of the death penalty and some states have suspended the process of carrying out such sentences, experts say that this suspension of executions means that prisoners die in prison while waiting for their turn to die.

The reason for this is that there is no solution to determine the fate of these sentences and prisoners; therefore, those sentenced to death in states that have suspended the execution of the death penalty remain in prison until their death.

According to statistics, currently, amid America's alleged opposition to the death penalty, 2,000 Americans are on death row in the country's prisons; 40 of these are on federal death row and the rest are on state death row.