Shannon Tan reports for the Indianapolis Star. Excerpt:
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. — With just days to live, Joseph L. Trueblood asked Gov. Frank O’Bannon on Tuesday for a polygraph test to prove the Death Row inmate has been telling the truth.
Trueblood insists his lawyers told him he would not face death when he pleaded guilty to killing Ashelyn Bowsher, 2, and her 1-year-old brother, Billy.
Trueblood expected a prison term of 30 to 40 years, he told reporters. Instead, Trueblood is scheduled to die early Friday for killing the children and their mother, Susan Bowsher, 22, his former girlfriend — unless O’Bannon intervenes. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the execution. Trueblood, 46, read his handwritten “dying declaration” at a news conference Tuesday at the Indiana State Prison. Even as he pleaded for his life, it was clear he had begun to accept the prospect of his death.
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Trueblood has written at least one letter to O’Bannon seeking a lie detector test. Although he has yet to rule in this case, O’Bannon has not granted clemency to any inmate since taking office in 1997.