New Revelations of Inmate’s Struggles During Ohio Execution Attempt

More infor­ma­tion is being report­ed about the botched exe­cu­tion-attempt of Romell Broom yes­ter­day (Sept. 15) in Ohio. According to the Associated Press, the cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers encoun­tered so much dif­fi­cul­ty in find­ing a suit­able vein for the lethal injec­tion that, after an hour, Broom attempt­ed to assist them by mov­ing on his side, slid­ing the rub­ber tub­ing up and down his arm, and flex­ing his fin­gers. A vein was found, but it col­lapsed as the tech­ni­cians insert­ed a saline solu­tion. Broom’s assis­tance did not help, and he turned on his back and cov­ered his face with both hands. He appeared to be in dis­tress and wiped his eyes. One of the exe­cu­tion team hand­ed him a roll of toi­let paper, which he used. The exe­cu­tion­ers attempt­ed to use the veins in his legs and he gri­maced. One of the team pat­ted him on his back. Finally, the exe­cu­tions gave up their attempts, indi­cat­ing they need­ed a break.

During the exe­cu­tion, one of Broom’s lawyers , Tim Sweeney, wrote Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer ask­ing him to end the pro­ce­dure. ​“Any fur­ther attempts today to car­ry out the exe­cu­tion of Mr. Broom would be cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment in vio­la­tion of … the U.S. Constitution,” he wrote. ​“They would also vio­late Ohio’s statu­to­ry require­ment that a lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion is to be quick and pain­less.” During the process, Broom request­ed that anoth­er of his lawyers, Adele Shank, come to the wit­ness room. She wit­nessed Broom wince in pain sev­er­al times. ​“It was obvi­ous­ly a flawed process,” she said.

After 2 hours, Prison Director Terry Collins con­tact­ed Governor Ted Strickland who issued the last minute reprieve. ​“Difficulties in admin­is­ter­ing the exe­cu­tion pro­to­col neces­si­tate a tem­po­rary reprieve,” said Strickland’s Warrant of Reprieve, filed in court Tuesday after­noon. Collins thanked Broom for the respect he showed the exe­cu­tion team and for the way in which he han­dled the difficulties. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio asked state offi­cials to imme­di­ate­ly halt exe­cu­tions. ​“Ohio’s exe­cu­tion sys­tem is fun­da­men­tal­ly flawed. If the state is going to take a per­son­’s life, they must ensure that it is done as humane­ly as pos­si­ble,” ACLU coun­sel Carrie Davis said. ​“With three botched exe­cu­tions in as many years, it’s clear that the state must stop and review the sys­tem entire­ly before anoth­er per­son is put to death.”

(S. Majors ​“Governor delays exe­cu­tion after suit­able vein can’t be found,” Associated Press, Sept. 16, 2009; ​“Execution prob­lems prompt one-week reprieve for Ohio inmate,” CNN​.com, Sept. 16, 2009; R. Smith ​“Romell Broom’s Execution-Gone-Wrong Leads Ohio Governor To Order Delay” CBS/​Associated Press, Sept. 16 2009). Read AP sto­ry; also, Read CBS/​AP sto­ry. See also the Web site of the Death Penalty Clinic of the Berkeley School of Law, which has a spe­cial sec­tion devot­ed to this case. See DPIC’s pages on Lethal Injections and Botched Executions.