Joseph E. Corcoran v. State of Indiana (1/11/05 IndSCt) [Criminal Law & Procedure]
Sullivan, Justice
Joseph E. Corcoran, convicted of four murders and sentenced to death, indicated that he believed he should be put to death for his crimes and waived any further legal review of his convictions and sentence. The State Public Defender took the position that he was not competent to make that decision. The trial court with responsibility for this case found Corcoran to be competent and the State Public Defender appealed that determination. Recently, Corcoran recanted his waiver of further review and now seeks dismissal of this appeal. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we deny Corcoran’s recent request for dismissal and affirm the trial court’s determination of competency. * * *Posted by Marcia Oddi at January 11, 2005 03:58 PM
Shepard, C.J., and Dickson and Boehm, JJ., concur. Rucker, J., dissents with separate opinion.
Rucker, Justice, dissenting.I respectfully dissent because I believe Corcoran is not competent to waive his right of post-conviction review. * * *