Athough he never plead guilty and DNA testing was circumstantial, not definitive, Romell Broom was convicted back in the ‘80s for raping and then killing a 14-year-old girl.
The unique thing about Broom, though, is that he survived this execution attempt, becoming the only person in modern times to do so.
Broom said he didn’t do it, but, to be fair, those are the first words out of my mouth every time my parents call me.
My parents have yet threatened to give me a nice dosing of lethal injection, although, if they did, I’d probably be better behaved.
A tech team spent two hours trying to get an IV connection going.
Reportedly, Broom was stuck with a needle 18 times.
Eighteen times.
Just think about that.
You’re all ready for death and some schmuck can’t find your vein and in place of that death you’ve been obsessing over since the date was made, you get stabbed eighteen times in the bone and muscle.
Did everyone on this death squad get their degree online?
It turns out that stabbing someone with a deadly poison will either kill them or cause them intense pain. Broom had something lethal poured into him for two hours.
He cried and screamed, but they just kept trying, because, hey, 17 is a fluke, but lucky number 18 will do it.
Now, just because he survived an execution attempt doesn’t mean he isn’t guilty.
But do you know what it’s called when instead of killing someone you cause them severe pain, when you ignore their pleas to stop and leave them alive afterwards?
It’s called “torture.” In case you didn’t know, torture has been out of style since 2007, when Guantanamo Bay got Wi-Fi.
Some people might argue that Broom deserved it for the crime he’s been convicted of, but torture is illegal, regardless of whether he raped and killed someone.
It’s not like the staff meant to miss his vein for two hours, right?
They probably meant to kill him right away, but incompetence intervened.
Legally, that still doesn’t make it okay. You might not mean to crash into a car, but you still have to pay for damages.
A restaurant may not mean to serve you a cockroach in your soup, but you can still sue.
The governor of Ohio called for a “timeout” from stabbing Broom, so everyone packed up their execution kits and gave the guy ten more days to think about dying painfully.
Broom’s lawyer is now suing the state over that torture thingy.
He’s arguing that, because of the mental and physical distress Broom suffered from the ordeal, his sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment. According to codes.ohio.gov, Ohio legislature defines the death sentence as a “lethal injection of a drug or combination of drugs of sufficient dosage to quickly and painlessly cause death.
The application of drugs … shall be continued until the person is dead.”
Was the law broken? The “application of drugs” was by no means “quick” or “painless.” Though, I have to say, the execution staff (what a cool title) definitely read the part about repeated dosage.
Should the ordeal he suffered change Broom’s circumstances?
In my opinion, no.
He is no less guilty than he was before. Execution is not defined as a “lethal injection,” but as “death from lethal injection.” The guy still needs to pay for his crime and nothing should change.
But that doesn’t make what happened to him okay.
I’m sure some folks will be all “eye-for-an-eye” about it, but keep in mind that child molesters are on the bottom rung in prison and he was sentenced to death.
So that raping and murdering he was convicted of?
He pretty much was guaranteed plenty of the first in prison and then a nice dose of the second as his punishment — or 18.
Richard Solomon can be reached at richard.solomon@spartans.ut.edu.
@DW. “People like me” like to put people like this where they belong. A jury of his peers convicted him, and it was upheld and nobody stopped it. Until proven innocent, he is guilty after a conviction.
That is how we roll in “my country”. If you don’t like it, that is alright. Just don’t bash someone for exercising his right to give an opinion, as I have refrained to do towards you.
BTW, I wouldn’t be executed, I would go out on my own terms. 🙂
@ Who Cares? – So you won’t mind if nobody cares if you are sentenced to death on the flimsiest of evidence?
It is because of people like you that your country has such a bad reputation in the civilised world.
Everything happens for a reason. I agree with the last commentor. This might be some type of devine intervention.
I think we are missing an important detail here. This man was convicted in the 1980’s where DNA testing was not as advanced as it is today. The article states in the beginning that this man never plead guilty and the DNA evidence was just circumstantial not definite. Before giving anyone the death penalty, I would suggest that the evidence is without any reasonable doubt. I have not read any other articles on this issue so I don’t know if this case went back to trial again to look at the DNA evidence again, but without being 100% sure that he is the man who committed the crime how can he be given the death penalty?? Put yourself in the same situation, what if you were innocent but blamed for a crime you did not commit. I do not in any way support this man, I think it is absolutely awful what happened to this young girl, I’m simply saying make sure he did it before giving him the death penalty.
He deserves to die- even if it is a death of a thousand needle punctures.
He raped a child and then he killed her. Consequently, I don’t care if they stick him a million times before they get it right. There is no needle in the world that hurts as much as what he’s putting that little girl and her parents through.
1. The article’s title is extremely misleading, as it suggests he defied death in some way not one, twice, but 18 times… While the two hours of poking and prodding must have been extremely painful, that’s not the same as actually being given lethal injection or the electric chair 18 times over and somehow still living.
2. Is this a news piece or a commentary piece? Make up your mind, because when you try adding sarcasm and humor to such a serious subject, you have to tread carefully. It just didn’t work here.
Dear Author,
Im not sure if this article is an attempt to raise discussion about the death penalty or more on a shock and awe subject that I believe you could have put a little more research into. Lethal injections are given through a catheter inserted into a peripheral IV site. The nurse in this situation attempted to start an IV line multiple times with this inmate and at no time was the actual lethal injection drug introduced into the inmates body. That process is started once the IV site is started and maintained. The phlebotomy process can often be very difficult on past IV drug abusers because their veins become “worn out” and collapse very easily when an IV is attempted to be started. Although the inmate claimed he was not a previous heroin user most recently, he stated he had in prior prison records and may be attempting to gain favor for an appeal. I do not support the death penalty but do not buy the story that this man was “tortured” as if the medical staff were intentionally trying prolong the process of an already highly debated process.