The US state of Indiana today executed a man who said he only pleaded guilty to a triple murder charge when he was told he would not receive the death penalty if convicted of the crime.
Joseph Trueblood (46) was pronounced dead at following a lethal injection, said officials at the Indiana State Prison.
His was the 858th execution since the United States resumed capital punishment in 1976, the 38th so far this year and the second in Indiana in six weeks.
Trueblood was convicted of the 1988 shooting deaths of Susan Bowsher (22) and her two children.
He made a number of appeals over the years, saying Ms Bowsher shot the children and herself in an act of suicide.
In a final statement, Trueblood reiterated his innocence, repeating his claim that Ms Bowsher had killed herself and her children and saying his attorneys had told him pleading guilty was the best way to avoid the death penalty.
There has been a renewed debate over capital punishment in the United States, which is alone among Western democracies in still carrying it out.
It was prompted by the former governor of Illinois, Mr George Ryan, who put a hold on all executions in that state and then emptied the state's death row pending a reform of laws designed to protect the innocent.