Indiana set to execute first inmate in 15 years - a man who killed his brother who wanted him out of his home

Joseph Corcoran, 49, has been on Indiana’s death row since 1999

Andrea Cavallier
Monday 16 December 2024 
Independent


Joseph Corcoran is pictured in 1999 just after being sentenced to death in the slayings of four people in July 1997. Now, at age 49, he’ll be Indiana’s first execution in 15 years (AP)

For the first time in 15 years, Indiana will execute a death row inmate – a man who was convicted a quarter-century ago of killing his brother and three other men.

Joseph Corcoran, now 49, has been on Indiana’s death row since 1999 and is set to be executed before sunrise Wednesday, December 18, at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.

If the execution goes ahead as planned, it’ll be the state’s first since 2009. In that time, 13 executions were carried out in Indiana but those were initiated and performed by federal officials in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison.


On July 26, 1997, Corcoran shot and killed his 30-year-old brother, James Corcoran, and three other men: Douglas A. Stillwell, 30, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Robert Scott Turner, 32.

Corcoran, who was 22 years old at the time of the killings, allegedly woke up and heard the men talking about him, so in the heat of the moment, he grabbed his rifle and shot all four of them.

He was reportedly under stress because his sister was set to marry Turner, which would lead to him having to move out of the house, according to court records.


open image in galleryThis undated photo provided by the Indiana Department of Corrections, shows Joseph Corcoran, who is scheduled to be executed before sunrise on December 18, 2024 (Indiana Department of Corrections via AP)

While Corcoran was serving time for the murders, he also reportedly bragged about killing his parents in 1992. He was charged in their killings but acquitted.


Attorneys for Corcoran, who exhausted his federal appeals in 2016, asked the Indiana Supreme Court to stop his execution but were denied. He then wrote an affidavit to the justices: “I am guilty of the crime I was convicted of, and accept the findings of all the appellate courts.”

Last week, his attorneys filed a petition in the US District Court of Northern Indiana asking the court to stop his execution and hold a hearing to decide if it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness.

They argued he has “severe and long standing paranoid schizophrenia” and his condition “manifests as auditory hallucinations and delusions that prison guards are torturing him with an ultrasound machine.”

“Indeed, he has volunteered to be executed, and is eager to be executed, because he believes his execution will give him relief from the perceived pain his delusions and hallucinations inflict upon him,” according to the filing.

But on Friday, the federal district court declined to intervene, prompting defense attorneys to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

The only people allowed to be present at the execution are the prison warden, those selected to assist in the execution, the prison physician, one additional physician, the condemned person’s spiritual adviser and the prison chaplain, according to Indiana code.

News media will not be allowed as Indiana is one of only two states, along with Wyoming, that do not allow members of the media to witness state executions, according to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Corcoran’s sister, Kelly Ernst, told the Associated Press that she is against the death penalty and that her brother’s execution won’t solve or change anything.

Ernst, who lost a brother and her fiancé in the killings, declined to say whether she believes Corcoran killed their parents. She has only recently been back in touch with Corcoran, but said she believes it’s “fairly obvious” he has a serious mental illness. She does not plan to attend his execution.

“I kind of just feel that there’s no such thing as closure,” Ernst added. She does not plan to attend his execution. “I just don’t know what else to say. I haven’t slept in weeks.”

Trump is threatening the press. We should take him seriously — and literally.

Peter Kafka, Chief Correspondent covering media and technology

Dec 16, 2024,
BUSINESS INSIDER

 

Donald Trump has always threatened the press. Those threats seem to have more weight now. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Donald Trump said he's planning on suing a newspaper over an election poll he didn't like.

It's in keeping with a flurry of recent threats — and suits — Trump has filed against the media.

That can create a landscape where publishers will have to be extra careful about what they say.

A pretty good journalism rule of thumb: Someone threatening to sue someone isn't news.


Literally anyone can say they're going to sue someone, for any reason. But many people who say they're going to sue someone don't follow through. So, the argument goes, you should wait until they actually file a suit, for real, to report on it.

Then there's Donald Trump. He also threatens to sue people — and the press specifically — all the time. But sometimes, he goes ahead with the threat. He's also going to be the most powerful person in the world, again, starting next month.

So. When Trump announces that he's going to sue journalists and news organizations — like he did Monday, when he suggested he would sue pollster Ann Selzer, or The Des Moines Register, or both, for publishing a poll that showed him losing Iowa in the 2024 election — should we take him seriously?



I think so.

That's in part because Trump, who has a long career of threatening media organizations, seems to be ramping up his legal energy. Over the weekend, he extracted a $15 million settlement from ABC News over a George Stephanopoulos interview from March that Trump said was defamatory. He's also filed a suit against CBS over the way its "60 Minutes" program handled an interview with Kamala Harris, claiming the network is guilty of election interference.

Plenty of legal experts think Trump has no chance of defeating CBS in court — "The First Amendment was drafted to protect the press from just such litigation," attorney Floyd Abrams told CNN this fall. But that same cohort didn't think much of Trump's chances against ABC.

Just as important: The threats Trump is making— along with those made by others in his circle, like Kash Patel, Trump's nominee to run the FBI, who has promised to "come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections" — seem to be a strategy.

As The New York Times's David Enrich notes, those suits and threatened suits seem like the "latest sign that the incoming Trump administration appears poised to do what it can to crack down on unfavorable media coverage."

It's true that the First Amendment makes it hard to win suits against journalists, and everyone else in the United States, over what they say or write. Even more so when the person filing the suit is a public figure. And Donald Trump may be the most public figure there is.

But fighting lawsuits — even those without much chance of winning — can be very costly. (For its part, The Des Moines Register's parent company has said a lawsuit would be without merit.) And while it's possible for publishers who win suits Trump files against them to charge him for their legal fees — like The New York Times successfully did this year — you still have to have the money, and willpower, for the fight.

Perhaps just as important: It's one thing to fight Donald Trump in court when he's a private citizen. It's quite another when he's the president of the United States and can make life difficult for you or your company regardless of what happens in the courtroom.

All of which is something you now have to think about if you're in the business of journalism. Not just when Trump, or someone in his circle, complains about your reporting — but before you publish or air it. That seems to be what Trump would like.

So yeah. That's a story.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

UnitedHealth Group agrees to $69 million settlement over low-performing retirement plan options

a judge in Minneapolis ruled earlier this year that a jury could conclude, based on evidence discovered during the case, that the company had been caught with its “hand in the cookie jar.”

Christopher Snowbeck, Star TribuneThe Minneapolis Star Tribune

UnitedHealth Group agreed to pay $69 million to settle a class action lawsuit from an employee who alleged the health care giant offered its employees lower-performing 401(k) options than it could have, costing workers hundreds of millions in lost investment profits.

The litigation alleged interference by the company’s CFO to retain certain Wells Fargo funds within the 401(k) plan because the bank was a large customer for UnitedHealth Group, including for coverage sold by its large UnitedHealthcare health insurance business.

News of the settlement between UnitedHealth and the plaintiffs came after a judge in Minneapolis ruled earlier this year that a jury could conclude, based on evidence discovered during the case, that the company had been caught with its “hand in the cookie jar.”

Lead plaintiff Kim Snyder filed the case more than three and a half years from ago. Class certification was granted by the judge, and Snyder’s attorneys say the class could include more than 300,000 people.

“Over the course of three and a half years of litigation, plaintiff Kim Snyder ... bore the particular burden of being the only class representative in the action,” Charles Field, an attorney with Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Ms. Snyder’s commitment to this case was the means of obtaining an outstanding outcome for the plan and the class.”

Snyder was not available for comment.

UnitedHealth Group said in a statement that the company’s 401(k) plan fiduciaries have always acted in the best interest of those using the plan to save for retirement.

“We strongly deny any allegations to the contrary,” UnitedHealth Group said. “If approved by the court, this settlement will enable all parties to put this matter behind them and move forward.”

In March, Judge John Tunheim of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota denied most of UnitedHealth Group’s motion for summary judgment in the case, which named the company, chief financial officer John Rex and former CEO David Wichmann as defendants.

“Because a reasonable trier of fact could easily find that plaintiff Kim Snyder caught defendant UnitedHealth Group, Inc., with its hand in the cookie jar, the court will substantially deny United’s motion for summary judgment,” Tunheim wrote in his decision, which set the stage for a court trial.

Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The bank in 2021 sold its asset management business, which ran the retirement funds at issue in the case.

The settlement remains subject to review and approval by Tunheim. A hearing date for court approval has not yet been set.

“Plaintiff seeks preliminary approval of a proposed settlement that provides substantial relief to a class of over 300,000 current and former participants in the UnitedHealth Group 401(k) Savings Plan,” attorneys for Snyder wrote in a memo filed with the court Friday.

UnitedHealth Group’s 401(k) included more than 200,000 current and former employees, according to court documents, with about $15 billion under management.

In 2010, the company added the Wells Fargo target fund suite as an option in the employee retirement savings plan. These funds, which are popular with investors, are tailored for different groups based on retirement date; they rebalance assets over time to focus less on growth as investors near retirement age.

Snyder sued in 2021. Her complaint alleged the Wells Fargo funds were retained as the default option for investors, despite their poor performance, in part because UnitedHealth wanted to protect its business relationship with the big bank.

In his March ruling, Tunheim highlighted evidence showing Chief Financial Officer John Rex requested the production of “balance of trade” ledgers to show UnitedHealth Group’s business with Wells Fargo versus alternate investment firms that could be selected.

On one side of the ledger, the judge wrote, UnitedHealth generated between $50 million and $60 million in revenue over four years as health insurance provider for Wells Fargo. On the other side, Wells provided substantial banking services to UnitedHealth, which was the bank’s “largest client and lifeline” in the market for target-date funds, the judge wrote.

Among other things, these comparisons showed that UnitedHealth’s most profitable relationship was with Wells Fargo.

The judge also cited a January 2018 email from a Wells Fargo employee stating Rex complained about UnitedHealth losing its bid to keep a health insurance contract with the bank. According to this email, Rex told the bank employee that he had “stepped in front of a freight train” the previous summer to preserve the investment business for Wells Fargo.

“Rex’s request for balance of trade ledgers and his statement to Wells Fargo about jumping in front of a freight train, to name two instances, show the injection of business interests into the plan selection process,” Tunheim wrote. The judge noted a debate between the parties about whether the email statement was hearsay, and therefore not admissible, but wrote: “The loyalty issue is not a particularly close call, and the court would deny summary judgment even absent the email.”

UnitedHealth Group argued the Wells Fargo funds outperformed peers when accounting for an investment approach that traded lower risks for lower rewards. Plaintiffs countered other funds would have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in additional investment profits — and that UnitedHealth short-circuited an internal effort to change vendors.

In October 2014, an outside consultant recommended UnitedHealth evaluate other options and an internal investment committee two years later considered proposals from six candidates and ranked Wells Fargo at the bottom. Yet UnitedHealth ultimately decided in June 2017 to retain the Wells Fargo funds.

The company defended the decision by noting a leadership change in the bank’s asset management business plus its strong position for negotiating a lower price from Wells Fargo. Plaintiffs said a prudent fiduciary would have moved much faster to make a change; they also highlighted how Rex was appointed to the investment committee evaluating options.

“Consideration of United’s relationship with Wells did not end with Rex,” Tunheim wrote in March. “Rather, the committee received word that United executives, including its president David Wichmann, needed to be preemptively informed which companies would be selected as finalists. A committee member later warned of escalation to executives, including Wichmann, if Wells was not selected.”

©2024 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

WORKERS CAPITAL

Beijing Pivots Towards Private Pensions

China expanded its two-year-old private pension project this week in an attempt to reduce financial strain on the current state pension system from the rapidly aging population.

A group of elderly pensioners outside on a bench. AFP
Blog Post by Carl Minzner

December 16, 2024 

As China’s rapidly aging population creates increasing financial strains on state pension systems, Beijing is pushing Chinese citizens to plan for their own retirements.

On December 15, Chinese authorities launched a national expansion of their two-year old pilot private pension pilot project. According to the state circular issued jointly by tax, finance, and human resource bureaus, citizens participating in either of the two primary state retirement systems are authorized to open private pension accounts. Existing tax incentives under the 2022 pilot project, authorizing citizens to take pre-tax deductions of 12,000 RMB (US 1,670), are to be applied nationwide in order to encourage citizens to save for their own retirements. Local authorities are encouraged to add additional financial products – particularly government bonds – to the range of investments that citizens can hold in their private pension accounts.

This move reflects an effort by Beijing to build out private pensions in the face of the increasing financial stresses that China’s rapidly aging society is placing on the public pension system. Over the past decade, Chinese authorities and scholars have regularly warned that existing retirement ages for public pensions - 50 (for blue-collar women), 55 (for white-collar women), and 60 (for men) were unsustainable given 21st century demographic realities (with lifespans approach 80 years old). In September, Chinese authorities announced that as of 2025 those ages will begin to steadily rise over the next 15 years - to 55, 58, and 63 - respectively.

It is unclear how effective China’s experiment with private pensions will be. As the scholar Mark Frazier has noted, China’s ongoing experiments with pension reform reflect a neoliberal authoritarian social policy that involves outsourcing state pension promises – first (in the early 2000s) from state-owned firms to local governments, and now (in the 2020s) from state authorities to the market (and individuals themselves). But Chinese citizens have been reluctant to embrace private pension accounts. As of summer 2024, while 60 million citizens had opened such accounts under the pilot project, only a fifth had actually made contributions.

Sudan conflict ups pressure on South Sudan to aid amputees, others with disabilities

December 16, 2024 
By Sheila Ponnie

VOA

A patient enters the men's dormitory of the Physical Rehabilitation Reference Centre in Juba, South Sudan

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN —

South Sudan is grappling with an influx of people living with disabilities as victims of ongoing conflicts in neighboring countries, such as Sudan, come in search of devices like artificial limbs. This surge puts immense pressure on South Sudan, a nation with just three specialized orthopedic centers.

At 9 years old, Ladu Jackson had to learn to walk with elbow crutches after a road accident forced doctors to amputate his left leg.

The incident initially turned Jackson’s life upside down, leaving him unable to engage in his favorite childhood activity, football.

Today, Jackson, now 23 years old, is one of South Sudan’s most recognizable amputee footballers, using the crutches to move while he kicks the ball with his remaining leg.

“In 2021, I started learning how to play football with one limb,” he said. ‘I didn’t know there was something called amputee football. I was just thinking, ‘I wish my leg was not amputated’ because I loved playing football so much.”

Jackson received support at the Physical Rehabilitation Reference Centre in Juba, established in 2009, two years before the country gained independence.

The center, supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is not only helping South Sudanese like Jackson but also aiding refugees fleeing civil war in Sudan.

A worker prepares a prosthesis inside the manufacturing workshop of the Physical Rehabilitation Reference Centre in Juba, South Sudan

“Of course, there are already clients with these conditions, but their numbers keep getting bigger because of conflicts and more road accidents,” said Uwar Bosco, head of the Juba-based prosthetic and orthotic center.

One such client is Adam Ahamed Mohamed, a refugee from Sudan who received his first prosthetic leg at the center. He fled to South Sudan after his entire family was displaced from their home in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Mohamed said he was shot in both legs. One leg was amputated at the Juba Teaching and Referral Hospital before he was taken to the Rehabilitation Reference Center, where he got a prosthetic leg.

The growing influx of refugees has placed immense strain on South Sudan’s fragile health care system, still recovering from its own civil war.

James Ochan, a disability inclusion adviser, said the center is coping with a rising tide of patients.

“So far, the data we’ve registered this year — from January to October — is 2,549,” he said. “We’ve not yet recorded the data for November.”

Ochan attributes the increase to neighboring Sudan's civil war, which has intensified over the past year.

“This year, we’ve seen a lot of influx from the crisis in Sudan. We have a team doing response at all the entry points from Sudan to South Sudan,” he said.

South Sudan ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on Feb. 21, 2023. The convention ensures equal rights for individuals with disabilities and supports societal reintegration for people like Jackson and Mohamed.

Ochan said that beyond providing prosthetics, the center helps individuals rebuild their lives and reintegrate into society.

“After rehabilitation and fitting with devices, they need to go back home or into society to start anew. After such incidents, some may feel they’re no longer part of society,” he said.

The center also promotes sports and economic activities for persons living with disabilities, helping them regain a sense of normalcy.

“We are supporting sporting activities like wheelchair basketball and amputee football,” Ochan said. “This is fully supported by the ICRC. We also have microeconomic initiatives to help persons with disabilities start businesses and become productive citizens.”

South Sudan is in the process of enacting a disability act, which Ochan believes will further cement the rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities.

Sources: Junta representatives, leaders of rebel group in talks in China

Negotiations between the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the military began on Sunday in Kunming.

By RFA Burmese

2024.12.16

Myanmar’s junta chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, left, and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army leader Peng Daxun, right. (AP Photo/The KoKang)

Representatives of the military junta and leaders of an insurgent army have been holding talks in China’s Yunnan province as Beijing leans on both sides to find a resolution to Myanmar’s civil war, sources close to the junta and the ethnic armed group told Radio Free Asia.

The negotiations in Kunming began Sunday, according to the sources who requested anonymity for security reasons. Neither the junta nor the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, have made any statements on the talks.

Lieutenant Gen. Ko Ko Oo represented the junta, along with a brigadier general and office staff, a junta source told RFA.

The talks come more than a month after junta leader Min Aung Hlaing traveled to Kunming to meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of a regional summit. The Nov. 6 trip marked the junta chief’s first trip to China since Myanmar’s military seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat.

In August, the MNDAA captured Lashio, northern Shan state’s biggest city and the location of the junta’s northeast military command. Since then, Beijing has pressured the rebel army to withdraw from the city, an important commercial gateway near the Chinese border.

Over the last year, the MNDAA has also seized control of more than a half dozen towns in the area that serve as significant border trading hubs.

In October, the group’s leader, Peng Daxun, traveled to Yunnan for medical treatment and to meet with Deng Xijun, China’s special envoy for Asian Affairs.

Sources close to the MNDAA told RFA last month that he was prevented from returning to Myanmar after the meeting as a way of pressuring the group to withdraw its troops from Lashio.

A source close to the junta regime told RFA that Peng was being held at a hotel in Yunnan that’s owned by his father. China’s foreign ministry denied that he was under house arrest.

The MNDAA, which has been fighting for autonomy since before the 2021 coup, declared a cease fire on Dec. 3 and announced that it would send a high-level delegation for talks with the junta. Peng’s status or location wasn’t mentioned in the announcement.

Aim to reopen trade crossings

Discussions will likely focus on continuing the ceasefire and the reopening of border trade gates, political analyst Phoe Wa said.

“Pressure for either side to withdraw from their territories will not be accepted,” he said. “Instead, both sides are likely to reinforce their commitments to their current stronghold positions. The minimum possible agreement could involve easing the trade ban.”

The junta could request the release of soldiers captured by the MNDAA during the fight for Lashio, a former military officer and political analyst told RFA.

“The rebels have detained a significant number of junta troops, which poses a heavy burden for them,” the analyst said. “Given their limited territory and budget, providing adequate food for the prisoners of war is challenging.”

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Political analyst Than Soe Naing said the junta may also ask that it be allowed to dispatch troops in towns along the Muse-Mandalay trade route, as well as in Kunlong, a border town seized by the MNDAA in November 2023.

“I believe the junta will aim to maintain control in these areas,” he told RFA. “If they can secure Kunlong, they would likely consider that sufficient. They may propose a joint administration with the local population to solidify their rule.”

RFA attempted to contact junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Htun and a spokesperson for the MNDAA for comment but didn’t receive a response.

RFA also didn’t immediately receive a reply to an emailed request for comment sent to the Chinese embassy in Myanmar on Monday.

Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

How Myanmar’s junta is suppressing data about a hunger crisis

 | REUTERS