Joseph Trueblood was executed by the State of Indiana for a triple murder
According to court documents Joseph Trueblood was mad that his girlfriend was thinking of leaving him. Trueblood would take her and her two young children for a ride in his car and would fatally shoot all three: Susan Bowsher, 22, and her children Ashelyn, 2, and William, 1.
Joseph Trueblood would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Joseph Trueblood would be executed on June 12 2003 by lethal injection
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When Was Joseph Trueblood Executed
Joseph Trueblood was executed on June 12 2003
Joseph Trueblood Case
Joseph L. Trueblood, who shot and killed a woman and her two children 15 years ago, was executed by lethal injection at 12:24 a.m. today at the Indiana State Prison. Trueblood, 46, Lafayette, was convicted in the fatal shootings on Aug. 15, 1988 of Susan Bowsher, 22, and her children Ashelyn, 2, and William, 1.
In Lafayette Thursday, relatives of those victims gathered to await a phone call from a prison official confirming the death sentence had been carried out. “At least I can give my sister and her children some peace,” said Paul Bowsher Jr., Susan Bowsher’s brother. “I think after it’s all said and done, I think we want to be left alone.”
Gov. Frank O’Bannon denied Trueblood’s clemency petition on Wednesday. Trueblood had asked that his death sentence be commuted to life in prison. And less than 10 hours before he was scheduled to be executed, the Indiana Supreme Court again refused to spare him. Trueblood had argued that O’Bannon didn’t follow proper procedures in the clemency by not considering certain evidence. But in its unanimous denial, the justices disagreed. “The exclusive power to grant clemency rests with the governor,” Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard wrote. About 8 p.m. Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court also denied a stay of execution.
Trueblood visited with family members and friends Thursday but did not ask them to witness his execution. His attorneys — John Sommer, Kathleen Cleary and Chris Hitz-Bradley — and a Catholic priest, Rev. Thomas McNally, were going to witness his execution. Trueblood refused a special last meal. “This is the way I’m protesting what the state is getting ready to do,” he said Tuesday.
Among those he met with on his last day was Katie Pawski, 25, a University of Notre Dame graduate who got to know Trueblood through a priest while she attended college. Pawski said she and Trueblood ate candy, soft drinks and chips from a vending machine and prayed together. Beverly Miller, 56, who also visits Death Row inmates, has known Trueblood for 12 years. She said Thursday that “he believes he will be in heaven with Susan and (the) children.”
Trueblood also is battling the Department of Correction to prevent an autopsy. A LaPorte County judge on Thursday granted a temporary restraining order preventing the department from conducting an autopsy, according to Trueblood’s attorneys. A hearing will be held at 1 p.m. today to decide whether the autopsy will take place. “I don’t want my body desecrated in any way,” Trueblood said. “Once they murder me, they no longer have any authority over me.” Trueblood said at the news conference his family was claiming the body and he would be buried near Lafayette.
Death penalty opponents gathered outside the governor’s mansion in Indianapolis and outside the Indiana State Prison Thursday night. At the governor’s residence at 46th and Meridian streets, about 25 protesters gathered — even though O’Bannon isn’t there. He has moved out while the mansion is renovated. Holding an “Execution is Murder” sign, bookseller Diane Plantenga said: “I think it is ridiculous to kill to teach that killing is wrong.”
Some drivers in passing cars honked their horns in apparent support; one man in a passing car yelled “Kill ’em all!” “I wanted to be out here and show my face against people like that,” said Abbey Hambright. When demonstrator Jennifer Cobb got too close to the curb, she was clipped in the elbow by a passing vehicle’s side mirror. The impact tore the mirror from the vehicle — which didn’t stop — but Cobb wasn’t hurt and didn’t leave, though an ambulance was called to check her out.
Up in Michigan City, as the hour of execution neared, the 15 death penalty opponents gathered outside the prison gates began chanting the Lord’s Prayer, as Trueblood had requested. They included Marvin B. Hayes, who said he was a retired correctional officer who had worked on Death Row. “I’m pro-life,” he said. “When I say that, many people misinterpret it. I’m against abortion — but I’m also against this.” About half a dozen death-penalty supporters also were there, including four who live nearby. Mark Hamner had a longer trip; he drove up from Indianapolis. “People in Indiana support the death penalty,” Hamner said. “There are some crimes that deserve the harshest penalty.”
Trueblood’s attorneys argued that Trueblood — a Lafayette taxi driver who had an abusive childhood — had suffered brain damage from several strokes. They also cited his heroism in saving a woman from a burning building. Trueblood also claims when he pleaded guilty to the children’s murders, his trial attorney told him he had a plea bargain and would not be sentenced to death. Trueblood maintains that Bowsher, who was suicidal, shot her children before shooting herself. Trueblood said he then fired the final shot out of compassion. Prosecutors, however, said Trueblood was upset that Bowsher, with whom he had been living, was planning on returning to her ex-husband.
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/7/050422-2967-009.html
