Washington:

The US state of Indiana carried out its first execution in 15 years on Wednesday, putting to death a mentally ill man convicted of murdering four people in 1997, including his own brother.

Joseph Corcoran, 49, was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 12:44 am (0644 GMT) at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, officials said.

His last words were “Not really. Let’s get this over with,” a statement by the Indiana Department of Correction said.

Corcoran’s lawyers argued in court filings that putting him to death would violate the Constitution because he has long suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

They said that Corcoran experienced hallucinations and delusions, falsely believing that prison guards have been torturing him with an ultrasound machine.

Corcoran’s “longstanding and documented mental illness continues to torment him as it did at the time of the 1997 offense,” his legal team argued.

Corcoran was going through a stressful period in July 1997 because the upcoming marriage of his sister would see him moving out of the home he was sharing with her and his brother in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

After he overheard his brother, James Corcoran, 30, talking about him, he loaded his rifle and shot his brother and three other men, according to court filings.

Corcoran had previously been acquitted of the murders of his parents, who were found shot dead in their home in 1992.

Corcoran’s execution is the 24th in the United States this year; three used the controversial method of nitrogen gas, while the rest relied on lethal injections.

Indiana paused executions in 2009 because it was unable to obtain the necessary drugs, with pharmaceutical companies reluctant to be associated with capital punishment.

But Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita, both Republicans, announced this summer that the state had acquired the drug — pentobarbital — and that executions would resume, beginning with Corcoran’s.

His lawyers sought to stop the execution through the courts, arguing that Corcoran “continues to suffer the debilitating symptoms of his paranoid schizophrenia.”

Corcoran however sent a letter last month to the Indiana Supreme Court, saying he no longer wanted to litigate his case.

His lawyers nonetheless filed an emergency appeal to the US Supreme Court on Tuesday to stay the execution, which was ultimately rejected.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while six others — Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee — have moratoriums in place.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Counting has begun for the US elections and, according to early leads, Donald Trump is ahead in the Red states of Indiana and Kentucky. Both states have usually voted in favour of Republican candidates. 

In Indiana, which has 11 electoral college votes, 6% of votes have been counted and, of those, Republican nominee Donald Trump has received 63.1% of the votes while Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has polled 35.8%. In 2020, Trump got 57% of the votes while then Democratic candidate Joe Biden got 41%.

Kentucky has eight electoral college votes and of the 3% of ballots counted as of 5.23 am (IST) former president Trump has polled 66.8% while Vice President Harris has received 32.1%. The state had voted in favour of Trump in 2020, with 62.1% of votes going to him and 36.2% being polled by Biden. 

In the next few hours, polls are set to close in the seven swing or battleground states of Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin, which will effectively decide who will be the 47th President of the United States. The contest between Trump and Harris has been a fiercely fought one and both sides appeared to be in a dead heat even on Tuesday, which was the day of voting. 

Exit polls showed that the state of democracy and the economy, and abortion, were the most important issues for American voters heading into the election. Exit polls conducted by CBS News revealed that almost six in 10 people ranked the state of democracy as their number one issue, followed by abortion, which was picked by five per cent of voters as an important issue. Economy was picked as a priority issue by one in ten. 

Hundreds of schools across the United States are set to close on April 8th due to a total solar eclipse. The eclipse will plunge several states into darkness as the moon covers the sun completely, according to Newsweek.

The path of totality will start in Mexico and move across parts of the United States, casting a complete shadow. This comes just a few months after the “ring of fire” eclipse in October 2023. Millions are expected to witness this astronomical event, with astronomy enthusiasts traveling to states in the path of totality, as per the news report.

However, safety concerns are emerging amid the excitement. Authorities warn that looking directly at the sun can cause permanent eye damage. There are also concerns about traffic disruptions and strain on local resources due to the large crowds expected.

The eclipse will be visible in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience totality. The eclipse will then move to Canada before exiting North America on the Atlantic coast.

Many schools in affected states have already announced closures. Parents are advised to check with their schools and stay updated with local news reports.

Texas has been proactive, with several counties issuing disaster declarations and advising residents to stock up on supplies. Some school districts, which initially planned eclipse-related activities, have reversed course due to safety concerns. Students will be given special eclipse glasses to take home and use for independent activities.

Schools in Indiana are also closing or switching to e-learning on the day of the eclipse.

A 6-month-old baby in the United States was nearly eaten alive by rats that bit him over 50 times while he slept in his crib last week, police said. According to USA Today, the incident took place in Indiana on September 13. Evansville Police Department officers responded to a home after the child’s father called and said his 6-month-old son appeared to have suffered serious bite wounds. 

The boy’s parents, David and Angel Schonabaum, were arrested and charged with multiple counts of neglect and other criminal charges. The child’s aunt, Delania Thurman, who lived in the same home, was also arrested on the same charge, the outlet reported. The baby boy, on the other hand, has been released from the hospital and placed in foster care. 

The couple lived at the home with their three children, including the baby, and another family member and her two children. According to the cops, when they reached the home, they found the 6-month-old covered in blood, suffering from more than 50 bite wounds to his head and face. 

“All four of (the victim’s) fingers and thumb on his right hand were missing the flesh from the top of them, exposing fingertip bones,” police detective Jonathan Helm wrote in an arrest affidavit, as per USA Today. “The damage to (the victim’s) index and pinky fingers were the most severe, as they were missing the flesh halfway down each finger,” he added. 

The baby boy was flown to a hospital in Indianapolis, where doctors gave him a blood transfusion after his temperature dropped to 93.5 degrees. Notably, as per Mayo Clinic, the average body temperature is 98.6 degrees. The boy’s vitals show that he was suffering from moderate hypothermia as well as hypoxemia.  

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According to the New York Post, the little boy’s home was full of clutter, trash and rat feces, the police said. The boy’s father told investigators that they began having a rodent issue in march and that the Terminix exterminators were treating the house. However, the cops also revealed that the rat’s mauling of the baby was not the first time as the rodents snacked on other children in the home as well in early September. 

Two kids in the house told their school teacher on September 1 that mice had bitten their toes while they were sleeping. Days later, when the Indiana Department of Child Services visited the home, their mother told officials that their house had a normal amount of rodents, and denied wounds to one child’s feet were caused by rats. The department then went over a safety plan with the family and scheduled a return to the home just one day after the baby was bitten by rats. 

Now, all children in the home have since been removed from their parent’s care by the  Department of Child Services. The baby boy’s father has been jailed without bond on Friday and his wife is being held on a $10,000 bond. The aunt, who has also been booked into the jail Thursday, is charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent and remained jailed Friday on $2,500 bond.