Indiana | Pastor speaks out against upcoming execution of Joseph Corcoran

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - A local pastor has been arranging protests against the state’s decision to continue with the upcoming execution of Joseph Corcoran for the past couple weekends.

Anna Lisa Gross is a co-pastor at Beacon Heights here in Fort Wayne and has been working with multiple churches to protest the execution of Corcoran.

“Our community has failed him more than one time, and now to kill him would do nothing,” says Gross.

Gross says she’s spent a large portion of her life fighting the death penalty.

“I think I was about six the first time I met someone who was under the sentence of death so it’s been a life long passion for me. I was taught by my parents that there are a lot of ways to solve problems, and that violence is never the way to solve a problem,” she says.

Indiana and Kentucky are two of the 27 states that have the death penalty.

Currently there are eight prisoners on death row in Indiana.

“What it does is teach our children and the rest of us that violence solves problems, and we know how dangerous it is to give that message. Then the next person who is feeling in distress who can’t figure out how to solve their problem has been taught that violence is a solution,” says Gross.

Gross says she is upset about how the community has reacted and some of the things people have posted on social media.

“If we can follow that commandment to treat others the way we want to be treated, and that means learning enough about somebody to know what they need and our community has failed Joseph and continues to fail other people in that way. We’re not finding solutions for people that are struggling with severe mental illness,” says Gross.

Source: WPTA, Staff, December 16, 2024

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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