The Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from Romell Broom (pic­tured), whose exe­cu­tion was halt­ed in 2009 after cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers spent two hours try­ing to insert an IV for a lethal injec­tion. Broom was pricked 18 times dur­ing the attempt­ed exe­cu­tion. The court will decide whether fur­ther attempts to exe­cute Broom would vio­late dou­ble-jeop­ardy rules or the Eighth Amendment ban on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. ​“Romell Broom has a con­sti­tu­tion­al right not to be sub­ject­ed to more than one exe­cu­tion attempt under the cir­cum­stances present in this case includ­ing the fact that sig­nif­i­cant psy­cho­log­i­cal and phys­i­cal pain have already been inflict­ed on him in a first attempt,” his lawyers said. A fed­er­al judge recent­ly sus­pend­ed all exe­cu­tions in Ohio until at least August 15, 2014, in order to allow a review of the state’s new exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. The pro­to­col was changed after the botched exe­cu­tion of Dennis McGuire in January. 

(T. Connor, ​“Top Court Will Hear Romell Broom’s Execution Do-Over Appeal,” NBC News, June 3, 2014.) See Lethal Injection.

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