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After 18 botched IV attempts on a screaming, bleeding, black inmate, Ohio gets another chance to execute him

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The Supreme Court has ruled that execution by lethal injection 
does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. But that has 
not endowed state executioners with the competence or the proper 
drugs to always perform those executions smoothly or humanely. 
Indeed, the past few years have seen highly publicized examples 
of botched executions, most notably that of Clayton Lockett, an 
Oklahoma murderer who kicked, grimaced and survived for 43 
minutes after his execution began in April 2014. The problem 
there, officials later said, was properly inserting the IV 
needle to administer the deadly poison and a lack of training on 
what to do when things went wrong.

But in the annals of botched execution attempts, the effort to 
inject a lethal potion into the body of Romell Broom at the 
Southern Ohio Correctional Facility on Sept. 15, 2009, surely 
set some sort of record, not only because it failed, but because 
it failed repeatedly for 95 minutes to two hours, with the man 
crying and screaming in pain.

Now, the Ohio Supreme Court is giving the state a do-over.

It began at roughly 2 p.m. that afternoon, after the warden read 
the death warrant to the man convicted in the brutal rape, 
kidnapping and murder of 14-year old Tryna Middleton. It ended 
some 95 minutes later when the medical team, which included a 
phlebotomist, an assortment of nurses and technicians and a 
physician finally gave up.

And in the course of that time period, they jabbed, poked and 
stuck the man at least 18 times, twisting and turning catheters 
this way and that. They made holes in his arms, legs and elbows, 
his wrists, the backs of his hands and his ankles, inserting 
catheter needles repeatedly into “already swollen and bruised 
sites,” according to court documents. His veins bulged. One of 
them “blew.”

They took breaks, leaving the man on the gurney, and then came 
back to try again.

The medical team, according to court documents, “would withdraw 
the catheter partway and then reinsert it at a different angle, 
a procedure known as ‘fishing.'”

“Warden Phillip Kerns,” the court said, “saw the team make six 
or seven attempts on Broom’s veins during the same 10- to-15-
minute period. According to Kerns, the team members did hit 
veins, but as soon as they started the saline drip, the vein 
would bulge, making it unusable.

“….By this time, Broom was in a great deal of pain from the 
puncture wounds, which made it difficult for him to move or 
stretch his arms. The second session commenced with three 
medical team members—9, 17, and 21—examining Broom’s arms and 
hands for possible injection sites,” according to the court’s 
opinion. “For the first time, they also began examining areas 
around and above his elbow as well as his legs. They also reused 
previous insertion sites, and as they continued inserting 
catheter needles into already swollen and bruised sites, Broom 
covered his eyes and began to cry from the pain. Director 
Voorhies remarked that he had never before seen an inmate cry 
during the process of venous access.”

And at one point, a physician came in and inserted a needle 
until “she struck bone,” even as another team member was 
“attempting to access a vein in Broom’s right ankle.”

“Broom screamed from the pain,” said the court. Blood ran down 
his arm.

Finally, they concluded that even if they managed to access a 
vein, “they were not confident the site would remain viable 
through the execution process.” They gave up. Then Ohio Gov. Ted 
Strickland issued a reprieve. Broom was the first person in the 
U.S. to be scheduled for execution and then have it postponed 
for failure to find a suitable vein.

Broom committed a horrendous crime, convicted in 1984 of the 
abduction, rape and murder murder of 14-year old Tryna Middleton 
in Cleveland. Middleton was walking home from a football game 
with two friends when she was kidnapped. He stabbed the girl 7 
times in the chest. But his guilt was not the issue in the case 
decided by the Ohio Supreme Court Wednesday. Rather, it was 
whether, after what he went through, another attempt at 
executing him constituted cruel and unusual punishment or double 
jeopardy, in this case, multiple punishments for the same crime.

The court, in 4-3 opinion, said it wasn’t. And that the state 
could go ahead and try again.

“The state’s intention in carrying out the execution is not to 
cause unnecessary physical pain or psychological harm, and the 
pain and emotional trauma Broom already experienced do not 
equate with the type of torture prohibited” by the Eighth 
Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Nor does a second execution attempt constitute a second 
punishment, said the court in an opinion written by Justice 
Judith Ann Lanzinger and joined by Chief Justice Maureen 
O’Connor and Justice Sharon L. Kennedy. “Because the lethal-
injection drugs were never introduced into the IV lines, the 
execution was never commenced.”

In other words, this wasn’t an execution at all. Therefore, a 
second attempt would not be a second punishment.

The description of what happened that day “chills me to the 
core” wrote Justice William M. O’Neill, in a dissenting opinion, 
one of two filed in the case. “Any fair reading of the record of 
the first execution attempt shows that Broom was actually 
tortured the first time. Now we embark on the task of doing it 
again.

“…It is not only the rights of the defendant that are in play 
here. There are state employees who have tragically endured the 
personal trauma of unsuccessfully attempting to execute a fellow 
human being. And now we, as a society, are telling them, ‘Do it 
again.’ I can only imagine the apprehension Broom and his 
executioners must be feeling now as they prepare for and await a 
second attempt.”

Broom’s lawyers, Timothy F. Sweeney and S. Adele Shank, said in 
a statement that “Mr. Broom has been informed of the decision 
and remains in good spirits. He looks forward to pursuing the 
additional legal remedies available to him.”

In the meantime, no date has been set for a second attempt. The 
execution schedule for Ohio’s other death row inmates has been 
delayed as the state works to secure a supply of the necessary 
drug, CNN reported.

http://wapo.st/1TVmwbg

Broom was convicted in 1984 of the abduction, rape and murder 
murder of 14-year old Tryna Middleton and sentenced to death.

Middleton was walking home from a football game with two friends 
when she was kidnapped.

http://bit.ly/1Rqe8jC

Broom was sentenced to death after he was convicted of 
kidnapping, raping and murdering 14-year-old Tryna Middleton in
1984 in East Cleveland. He stabbed the girl seven times in the 
chest.

http://bit.ly/1R9HEEI

ROMELL BROOM
Number: A187343
DOB: 06/04/1956
Gender: Male
Race: Black
Admission Date: 10/24/1985
Institution: Chillicothe Correctional Institution
Status: INCARCERATED
Offense Information
ROBBERY Counts: 1 ORC: 2911.02 2 Victim Info
Committing County: Cuyahoga Admission Date: 11/17/1975 Degree of 
Felony: Second
RAPE Counts: 1 ORC: 2907.02 2 Victim Info
Committing County: Cuyahoga Admission Date: 11/17/1975 Degree of 
Felony: First
AGG ROBBERY Counts: 1 ORC: 2911.01 2 Victim Info
Committing County: Cuyahoga Admission Date: 05/06/1975 Degree of 
Felony: Second
KIDNAPPING Counts: 1 ORC: 2905.01 2 Victim Info
Committing County: Cuyahoga Admission Date: 07/31/1986 Degree of 
Felony: First
KIDNAPPING Counts: 1 ORC: 2905.01 2 Victim Info
Committing County: Cuyahoga Admission Date: 10/24/1985 Degree of 
Felony: Second
ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING Counts: 2 ORC: 2905.01 4 Victim Info
Committing County: Cuyahoga Admission Date: 10/24/1985 Degree of 
Felony: 02
RAPE Counts: 1 ORC: 2907.02 2 Victim Info
Committing County: Cuyahoga Admission Date: 10/24/1985 Degree of 
Felony: First
AGG MURDER Counts: 1 ORC: 2903.01 2 Victim Info
Committing County: Cuyahoga Admission Date: 10/24/1985 Degree of 
Felony: AM
Sentence Information
Indefinite Sentence Min: Death Sentence
Indefinite Sentence Max: Death Sentence
Expiration of Max Sentence: Death Sentence

http://bit.ly/1R5Yqqo

On September 21, 1984, Tryna Middleton, and two friends were at 
a high school football game. Tryna was fourteen years old at the 
time, and she was a ninth-grade student at the high school. 
After the football game, the three girls began walking home, and 
they noticed a car that they thought looked suspicious. They 
walked away from the car and down a different street. A car 
without its lights on then came towards the girls and stopped in 
front of them; the driver exited the car and ran past the girls. 
Once the girls passed by the parked car, they heard footsteps 
behind them and then an assailant tried to grab all of them.

In the course of the struggle with the girls, the assailant 
said, “Come here, bitch,” and he pulled out a knife. Tryna 
Middleton, who was short and slightly built, was not able to get 
away from the assailant, but the other two girls escaped. They 
ran to a nearby house, where the homeowner allowed them to call 
their mothers and the police. The girls described the car and 
the assailant to the police.

Approximately two hours later, Tryna’s body was found in a 
parking lot; she had been stabbed seven times in the chest and 
abdomen and there were sperm cells found in her rectum and 
vagina. Five of the stabbings perforated Tryna's heart and lungs 
causing almost instantaneous death. Tryna also had a wound on 
her right arm which the coroner testified was the result of 
Tryna's efforts to defend herself.

Tryna's friends were shown a series of photographs, but were 
unable to identify a suspect at this point. Around the same 
time, there were two other incidents in the same area involving 
young girls. On September 18, 1984, a young girl named Venita 
was walking home when a car passed her and then stopped. When 
She walked past the car, the driver got out and grabbed her. He 
also threatened her with a knife, and he called her a “bitch.”

Residents who lived nearby heard the noise and the girl was able 
to escape into their home. The other incident occurred on 
December 6, 1984, involving an 11-year-old girl named Melinda. A 
car was following Melinda as she was walking home from a corner 
store near her home, and as she turned a street corner, a man 
passed her and then grabbed her neck from behind. The assailant 
began hitting the girl, and he threw her into his car as she 
struggled and screamed.

Melinda’s younger sister witnessed the beating and abduction and 
called to their mother, who ran outside barefoot and grabbed the 
locked car door on the driver's side. The icy road made the 
car's wheel's spin and slowed it's progress, allowing the mother 
to hold on to the car and to pound the window and push the car 
with her hip so that the car bumped into a parked car. As her 
mother held on to the car,

Melinda was able to escape through the passenger door which she 
had unlocked. Two young men who witnessed the commotion were 
able to get the license plate number of the car and gave it to 
the mother, which the police subsequently traced to William 
Broom, Romell Broom’s father. When the police arrived, the 
engine was still warm. Romell Broom admitted that he had been 
driving the car.

The police then took Broom to the hospital, where both Melinda 
and her mother identified him as the assailant. The other two 
witnesses to the incident also identified Broom in a line-up. 
The similarities between these three incidents led the police to 
bring in the witnesses from the other attempted abductions and 
the Tryna Middleton case to view a line-up. The victims and 
witnesses each independently identified Broom from the line-up; 
Broom was also identified in a photo array.

The police discovered that Broom had been driving his 
girlfriend’s car before it was wrecked on November 6, 1984, and 
one of the witnesses identified Broom’s girlfriend’s car as the 
one from the night of the Middleton incident. Tests revealed 
that the sperm discovered in Tryna Middleton’s vagina belonged 
to a person with type B blood, which is the blood type of 
approximately twelve percent of the population; Broom’s blood is 
type B.

There was also hair evidence found that connected Broom to the 
crime. A Cuyahoga County grand jury issued an indictment 
charging Broom with aggravated murder, rape and several counts 
of kidnapping. Broom was tried on the first five counts in 
proceedings that began on September 16, 1985. The jury found 
Broom guilty on each of the charges, and at the end of the 
penalty phase, recommended a sentence of death.

http://bit.ly/1R9HKw0
 

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After 18 botched IV attempts on a screaming, bleeding, black inmate, Ohio gets another chance to execute him "Black Lies Matter..." <black.lies.matter@abc.com> - 2016-03-19 07:20 +0100

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