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USA - Ohio. Romell Broom, who survived execution attempt, dies. COVID suspected.
December 29, 2020: Romell Broom, who survived execution attempt, dies. COVID suspected.
An Ohio death row inmate who survived an attempt to execute him by lethal injection in 2009 died Monday of possible complications of COVID-19, the state prisons system said.
Broom, 64, has been placed on the “COVID probable list” maintained by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, spokesperson Sara French said Tuesday.
Inmates on that list are suspected to have died of COVID-19, pending a death certificate, she said.
The state says 124 inmates have died from confirmed or probable cases of the coronavirus.
Ohio unsuccessfully tried to put Broom, then age 53, to death by lethal injection on Sept. 15, 2009.
The execution was called off after two hours when technicians could not find a suitable vein, and Broom cried in pain while receiving 18 needle sticks.
Broom was returned to death row, where he fought unsuccessfully to avoid a 2nd execution. His most recent execution date was in June, but in the spring Republican Gov. Mike DeWine issued a reprieve and set a new date in March 2022.
His attorneys filed arguments with the U.S. Supreme Court that he should be spared a 2nd attempt.
Broom survived the 2009 execution “only to live with the ever-increasing fear and distress that the same process would be used on him at his next execution date,” attorneys Timothy Sweeney and Adele Shank said in a statement.
“Let his passing in this way, and not in the execution chamber, be the final word on whether a second attempt should ever have been considered,” they said.
Broom was sentenced to die for raping and killing 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland in 1984.
Ohio is now under a de facto death penalty moratorium as DeWine has said lethal injection is no longer an option because of the state's inability to find drugs. He says lawmakers would have to choose a new method.
Since the introduction of the electric chair, 3 other death row inmates in the U.S. survived the first attempts to execute them after the process began.
— May 3, 1946: The execution of Willie Francis, 17, was called off after an improperly prepared electric chair failed to work in Louisiana. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow a second execution to proceed, rejecting double jeopardy arguments. Louisiana successfully executed the 18-year-old Francis by electric chair on May 9, 1947.
— Nov. 15, 2017: The execution of Alva Campbell, 69, by lethal injection was called off after members of Ohio’s execution team told the state prisons director they couldn’t find a vein.
— Feb. 22, 2018: The Alabama execution of Doyle Lee Hamm, 61, who had battled lymphoma, was called off about 2 1/2 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the execution to proceed after prison officials announced they were halting the procedure because medical staff did not think they could obtain “the appropriate venous access” before a midnight deadline.
For the Broom’s case see HoC 15/09/2009, 18/09/2009, 22/09/2009, 09/12/2009, 02/12/2010, 17/08/2014, 16/03/2016, 12/12/2016, 21/04/2020, 23/06/2020.
https://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2020/12/ohio-death-row-inmate-romell-broom-who.html (Source: Associated Press, 29/12/2020)
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