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

[Black Lies Matter...]

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