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The Indiana Supreme Court set the date for inmate Joseph E. Corcoran’s death Wednesday.
The high court ordered Corcoran’s death sentence to be carried out before the hour of sunrise on Dec. 18.
This will be the first execution in the Hoosier state since 2009.
Corcoran was found guilty of the murder of four people in 1997. He exhausted his appeals in 2016 and has been awaiting his execution since.
Gov. Eric Holcomb reinstated executions in the state in June after announcing the Indiana Department of Correction has obtained the drug pentobarbital that is used in executions.
According to the court’s order, Corcoran’s arguments against setting an execution date were not based on previously undiscovered evidence and instead focused on past evidence of mental illness.
Chief Justice Loretta rush wrote in the order that the “only thing properly” before them was the state’s motion to set an execution date.
Indiana is one of 21 states that have the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
There are currently eight men on Indiana’s death row, including Corcoran. No one has been added to the state’s death row since 2014.
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