USA - Indiana. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new sentencing hearing for Joseph E. Corcoran.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ordered a new sentencing hearing for Joseph E. Corcoran. The Court ruled that a trial court judge improperly considered aggravating factors not set out in state law when sentencing the now 34-year-old Corcoran. It ordered the Allen County court to hold a new sentencing hearing within 120 days. In 1999, a jury convicted Corcoran on 4 counts of murder. Corcoran shot and killed his brother, James Corcoran, 30; his sister's fiancé, Robert Scott Turner, 32; and 2 of his brother's friends, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30, in July 26, 1997. In 1992, at age 17, Corcoran was acquitted in Steuben County of the shooting death of his parents, Jack and Kathryn. Attorneys said the case was built mostly on circumstantial evidence.