Romell Broom (pic­tured) was to be exe­cut­ed at 10 AM on Tuesday, September 15, in Ohio. The exe­cu­tion was delayed as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit con­sid­ered grant­i­ng him a hear­ing. When that tem­po­rary stay was lift­ed, the exe­cu­tion process began again with a search­ing for a suit­able vein in Broom’s arm to insert an IV and to inject the lethal chem­i­cals. However, after two hours of fruit­less endeav­or, the cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers were unable to com­plete the exe­cu­tion. Governor Ted Strickland inter­vened and grant­ed a week-long stay of exe­cu­tion while the state eval­u­ates its pro­ce­dures. Ohio has had a series of prob­lems with its lethal injection process.

(S. Majors, ​“Ohio exe­cu­tion delayed week after vein trou­bles,” Associated Press, Sept. 15, 2009). See Botched Executions. This case rais­es a series of con­sti­tu­tion­al issues, includ­ing whether present stan­dards of decen­cy would reject sub­ject­ing a per­son to repeat­ed attempts at exe­cu­tion, whether the lethal injec­tion process requires med­ical par­tic­i­pa­tion to avoid being cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment, and whether the process being attempt­ed in Ohio and else­where amounts to human exper­i­men­ta­tion and torture.

Citation Guide