Delayed Exectution of Romell Broom

Governor Strickland delays Ohio execution of Romell Broom after trouble finding suitable vein
The Associated Press

Wednesday, September 16th 2009, 6:18 AM

AP Photo/Ohio Department of Correction and RehabilitationRomell Broom was sentenced to die for the 1984 **** and murder of a 14-year-old. Gov. Strickland has ordered a weeklong reprieve of his execution. Related NewsProblems finding a usable vein during an attempt to execute an Ohio inmate have halted his lethal injection for a week, but one death penalty scholar says possible legal challenges could further delay his return to the death chamber.

Gov. Ted Strickland on Tuesday issued a one-week reprieve to Romell Broom, 53, who spent more than two hours awaiting execution as technicians searched for a vein strong enough to deliver the three-drug lethal injection. The issue arose three years after Ohio revised its lethal injection protocol due to problems with another inmate's IV.

No Ohio governor has issued a similar last-minute reprieve since the state resumed executions in 1999.

Richard Dieter, director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, said he knows of only one inmate who was subjected to more than one execution.

A first attempt to execute Willie Francis in 1946 by electrocution in Louisiana did not work. He was returned to death row for nearly a year while the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether a second electrocution would be unconstitutional.

Dieter said he expects legal challenges will mean Broom will not face execution again in a week's time.

"I think this is going to be challenged, whether under our standards of decency subjecting someone to multiple executions is cruel and unusual ... whether this is in effect experimenting on human beings, whether or not they're sure what works in Ohio," he said.

Broom was sentenced to die for the **** and slaying of a 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland in September 1984 as she walked home from a Friday night football game with two friends.

Prisons director Terry Collins said the execution team eventually told him they didn't believe Broom's veins would hold if the execution reached the point when the lethal drugs would be administered.

Collins said he contacted the governor at about 4 p.m. to let him know about the difficulties and request a reprieve.

A medical evaluation Monday had determined that veins in Broom's right arm appeared accessible. Collins said that before Broom's next scheduled execution, the team would try to determine how to resolve the problem encountered Tuesday

About an hour into Tuesday's execution effort, a lawyer for Broom, Tim Sweeney, sent an e-mail and fax to Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer asking him to end the procedure. Sweeney said continuing the effort would deny Broom his constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment and violate Ohio law that requires lethal injection to be quick and painless.

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