Appeals court refuses to halt Ohio execution

[samanthajane13]

By STEPHEN MAJORS, Associated Press Writer Stephen Majors, Associated Press Writer – 44 mins ago

LUCASVILLE, Ohio – A federal appeals court has refused to halt the execution of an Ohio man who raped a 14-year-old girl and stabbed her to death.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Tuesday denied 53-year-old Romell Broom's request to stay the execution and to allow an appeal to go before the full court.

A three-judge panel of the court had rejected the appeal late Monday.

Broom's attorney Tim Sweeney said there were no further appeals options.

The state had stopped its execution preparations pending the appeals court decision. A prisons spokeswoman says preparations have resumed and estimated the execution will take place about 1:30 p.m.

Broom was convicted in the 1984 slaying of Tryna Middleton after abducting her at knifepoint in Cleveland.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Ohio prison officials have halted execution preparations for a man who raped and stabbed to death a 14-year-old girl pending the results of an appeal before a full federal appeals court.

Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Julie Walburn said Tuesday that prison officials were holding off on final preparations for lethal injection of Romell Broom.

A panel of federal appeals court judges in Cincinnati sided late Monday with a district court against an appeal filed by Broom's attorney. But the attorney then asked for a hearing before the full appeals court. At the 10 a.m. scheduled execution time, the court was still reviewing the request.

Officials were holding off on inserting shunts in Broom's arms.

Broom was convicted of raping and stabbing 14-year-old Tryna Middleton to death in 1984.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090915/ap_on_re_us/us_ohio_execution

[samanthajane13]

Lawyer: Ohio execution on hold after vein troubles
By STEPHEN MAJORS, Associated Press Writer Stephen Majors, Associated Press Writer – 12 mins ago

LUCASVILLE, Ohio – Executioners struggled to find suitable veins to put a condemned inmate to death Tuesday in a prison scene reminiscent of the problems that delayed executions in 2006 and 2007 and led to changes in Ohio's lethal injection process.

The team of prison volunteers was having trouble inserting IVs into the arms of 53-year-old Romell Broom, said Tim Sweeney, one of Broom's attorneys.

The team began working on Broom, in a holding cell 17 steps from the execution chamber, shortly after 1 p.m.

Broom lost a last-minute appeal earlier in the day, delaying the execution originally scheduled for 10 a.m.

Messages were left for prison officials in Lucasville and for the Ohio Attorney General's office.

A medical evaluation Monday determined that veins in Broom's right arm appeared accessible, while those in his left arm were not as visible.

Broom is sentenced to die for raping and killing 14-year-old Tryna Middleton in Cleveland in 1984.

In 2006, the execution of Joseph Clark was delayed for more than an hour after the team failed to properly attach an IV, an incident that led to changes in Ohio's execution process.

The state also had difficulty finding the veins of inmate Christopher Newton, whose May 2007 execution was delayed nearly two hours.

In that case, the state said the delay was caused by team members taking their time as opposed to an unforeseen problem.

Since Clark, the state's execution rules have allowed team members to take as much time as they need to find the best vein for the IVs that carry the three lethal chemicals.

Broom had sought a court hearing to consider whether investigators shielded records at his trial. He says the records could have changed the trial's outcome.

The state announced shortly before 9:30 a.m. that it had stopped short of inserting shunts into Broom's arms for the lethal injection procedure. Prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said at about 12:30 p.m. that preparations had resumed and would likely take about an hour.

Broom was convicted in the 1984 slaying of Tryna Middleton after abducting her at knifepoint in Cleveland as she walked home from a Friday night football game with two friends.

Walburn said Broom spent the hours during the delay reading, listening to the radio and watching television and visited with an attorney for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. He was served a prison lunch of creamed chicken, biscuits, green beans, mashed potatoes, salad, an apple and grape beverage. He sat on his bed and began eating the lunch after he learned his final appeal request was denied.

Walburn said Tryna Middleton's mother, father and aunt planned to witness the execution on her behalf.

No one was to watch the execution on Broom's behalf, and he had no visitors in the day before his execution, a first since Ohio resumed executions in 1999. He spoke on the phone with his brother and sister.

Ohio has executed 32 men since Wilford Berry in 1999, an execution slightly delayed also because of problems finding a vein.

Broom's execution would be the second in less than a month.

(This version CORRECTS that the process began shortly after 1 p.m. and that Broom is in a holding cell, not the death chamber.)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090915/ap_on_re_us/us_ohio_execution

[samanthajane13]

Guards watch Ohio inmate after execution delay

LUCASVILLE, Ohio – A condemned inmate whose execution was stopped because of problems finding a usable vein will remain at the maximum security prison where death row inmates usually are held for a day before being put to death.

Ohio prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn says inmate Romell Broom has been placed in a cell in the infirmary at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville and will remain there over the next week.

Walburn says Broom is under constant observation.

Death row inmates are housed in a Youngstown prison and executed in the death chamber at Lucasville. There's no precedent for housing an inmate whose execution didn't work.

Gov. Ted Strickland stopped Broom's execution Tuesday after about two hours as executioners struggled unsuccessfully to find a vein strong enough to deliver a three-drug lethal injection.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090916/ap_on_re_us/us_ohio_execution

[samanthajane13]

Log blames Ohio execution problems on drug use
By STEPHEN MAJORS, Associated Press Writer Stephen Majors, Associated Press Writer – 41 mins ago

LUCASVILLE, Ohio – A prison log blames a condemned Ohio inmate's past drug use for problems finding a usable vein during an execution attempt that was stopped Tuesday after an unprecedented two hours.

The log of Tuesday's scheduled execution of Romell Broom indicates that executioners made the observation at 3:11 p.m., more than an hour after first trying to find a vein.

"Medical team having problem maintaining an open vein due to past drug use," said the log reviewed by The Associated Press.

Broom said at one point he was a heavy heroin user, but then said at another time that he wasn't, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said Wednesday.

Broom, 53, has been placed in a cell in the infirmary at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville where he is on close watch similar to the constant observation of death row inmates in the three days before an execution.

"It was the right place to keep him," Walburn said. "The less we can transport an offender, the better."

Death row inmates are housed in a Youngstown prison and executed in the death chamber at Lucasville. There's no precedent for housing an inmate whose execution didn't work.

Gov. Ted Strickland on Tuesday issued a one-week reprieve to Broom, who spent more than two hours awaiting execution as technicians searched for a vein strong enough to deliver the three-drug lethal injection. The issue arose three years after Ohio revised its lethal injection protocol due to problems with another inmate's IV.

No Ohio governor has issued a similar last-minute reprieve since the state resumed executions in 1999.

The night before his scheduled execution, Broom told his brother over the phone that he was ready to die.

"He is tired of being in prison and having people tell him what to do everyday," according to the prison log.

Richard Dieter, director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, said he knows of only one inmate who was subjected to more than one execution.

A first attempt to execute Willie Francis in 1946 by electrocution in Louisiana did not work. He was returned to death row for nearly a year while the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether a second electrocution would be unconstitutional.

Dieter said he expects legal challenges will mean Broom will not face execution again in a week's time.

"I think this is going to be challenged, whether under our standards of decency subjecting someone to multiple executions is cruel and unusual ... whether this is in effect experimenting on human beings, whether or not they're sure what works in Ohio," he said.

Broom was sentenced to die for the rape and slaying of a 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland in September 1984 as she walked home from a Friday night football game with two friends.

Prisons director Terry Collins said the execution team eventually told him they didn't believe Broom's veins would hold if the execution reached the point when the lethal drugs would be administered.

Collins said he contacted the governor at about 4 p.m. to let him know about the difficulties and request a reprieve.

A medical evaluation Monday had determined that veins in Broom's right arm appeared accessible. Collins said that before Broom's next scheduled execution, the team would try to determine how to resolve the problem encountered Tuesday

About an hour into Tuesday's execution effort, a lawyer for Broom, Tim Sweeney, sent an e-mail and fax to Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer asking him to end the procedure. Sweeney said continuing the effort would deny Broom his constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment and violate Ohio law that requires lethal injection to be quick and painless.

The team had started working on Broom, in a holding cell 17 steps from the execution chamber, at about 2 p.m., four hours after his execution was originally scheduled. That initial delay was due to a final federal appeals request.

After about an hour, Broom tried to help. He turned onto his left side, slid rubber tubing up his left arm, began moving the arm up and down and flexed and closed his fingers. The execution team was able to access a vein, but it collapsed when technicians tried to insert saline fluid.

Broom turned onto his back and covered his face with both hands. His torso heaved up and down and his feet shook. He wiped his eyes and was handed a roll of toilet paper, which he used to wipe his brow.

The team tried to insert shunts through veins in Broom's legs, causing him to appear to grimace. A member of the execution team patted him on the back.

Broom, who did not have any witnesses present, requested that one of his attorneys, Adele Shank, come to the witness area. She asked to speak with Broom but was told that once the process started, it's protocol that attorneys can't have contact with their client.

"I want to know what Romell wants," Shank told a prison official, who told her that he was being cooperative.

"He's always cooperative," responded Shank. "I want to know what he wants me to do."

Collins said the difficulty in the process "absolutely, positively" does not shake his faith in the state's lethal injection procedure.

The problems prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio to ask state officials to immediately halt executions.

"Ohio's execution system is fundamentally flawed. If the state is going to take a person's life, they must ensure that it is done as humanely as possible," ACLU Ohio counsel Carrie Davis said. "With three botched executions in as many years, it's clear that the state must stop and review the system entirely before another person is put to death."

Florida has also experienced problems with lethal injection.

The state halted executions after the death of Angel Diaz in December 2006 was delayed for 34 minutes because needles were accidentally pushed through his veins, causing the chemicals to go into his muscles instead. Florida resumed executions in 2008 under new procedures.

Problems accessing veins also delayed Ohio executions in 2006 and 2007.

In 2006, the execution of Joseph Clark was delayed for more than an hour after the team failed to properly attach an IV, an incident that led to changes in Ohio's execution process.

The state also had difficulty finding the veins of inmate Christopher Newton, whose May 2007 execution was delayed nearly two hours.

Since Clark, the state's execution rules have allowed team members to take as much time as they need to find the best vein for the IVs that carry the three lethal chemicals.

Ohio has executed 32 men since Wilford Berry in 1999, an execution slightly delayed also because of problems finding a vein.

___

Associated Press Writer Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090916/ap_on_re_us/us_ohio_execution

[SaraSidle]

I read somewhere at CNN I think that he actually helped with his injection by rolling over and finding a vein in his arm which also collapsed. He is ready. IMO

[wind149]

Can you hear the bleeders whine now?? This ain't the first time they had problems with inserting a needle in one's arm and it won't be the last. This is no reason to halt the execution of this scumbag, I hope to hell he feels those drugs going in and what he really should be feeling is himself dixiefrying to the chair and I would pay money to see this!!! Before the execution, they need to have someone who is used to finding veins as it is very hard to find veins in my arms, they always seem to have a proble, every time I have surgery or even bloodwork drawn and now I go to the one guy who I know will bang me without turning me into a pin cushion. As for this POS, who gives a crap? You are killing him, not giving him happy juice!!:flamemad:

[samanthajane13]

Here ya go, Wind!!

Just for you!!!

Tear him a new one!!!

Ohio inmate 'traumatized' after failed execution
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press Writer Andrew Welsh-huggins, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 16, 7:40 pm ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The lawyer for an inmate whose execution was halted after an unprecedented two hours said trying to put him to death again in a week could be a disaster.

Romell Broom is still recovering from Tuesday's prolonged execution attempt and is physically and emotionally traumatized, his attorney, Adele Shank, said Wednesday.

"It went so badly when he was walking in without injured veins, to go forward so soon afterward just seems to be inviting disaster," Shank said.

Gov. Ted Strickland's decision to stop Tuesday's execution and grant a one-week reprieve appeared to be unprecedented since capital punishment was declared constitutional and the nation resumed executions in the 1970s.

Inmates in several states have experienced delays with the injection of lethal chemicals, but those executions have always proceeded the same day.

Shank said one option was to ask Strickland to consider a request for clemency and to commute Broom's sentence.

Strickland said he is reviewing the incident and consulting with prison officials and others about the next step.

"That does not mean there will be a review of the larger issue of lethal injections," Strickland said Wednesday. "That's been settled. Obviously yesterday demonstrated that we have a problem with this particular set of circumstances."

A prison log released Wednesday blamed Broom's past drug use for problems finding a usable vein.

The log indicates that executioners made the observation at 3:11 p.m., more than an hour after first trying to find a vein.

"Medical team having problem maintaining an open vein due to past drug use," said the log reviewed by The Associated Press.

Broom said at one point he was a heavy heroin user, but then said at another time that he wasn't, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said Wednesday.

Shank said she was unaware of any such drug use.

"If there's such a thing, it's got to be at least 25 years old," she said. "I don't thinking it should be having an impact at this late date."

Broom, 53, has been placed in a cell in the infirmary at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville where he is on close watch similar to the constant observation of death row inmates in the three days before an execution.

"It was the right place to keep him," Walburn said. "The less we can transport an offender, the better."

Death row inmates are housed in a Youngstown prison and executed in the death chamber at Lucasville. There's no precedent for housing an inmate whose execution didn't work.

The night before his scheduled execution, Broom told his brother over the phone that he was ready to die.

"He is tired of being in prison and having people tell him what to do everyday," according to the prison log.

Broom was sentenced to die for the rape and slaying of a 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland in September 1984 as she walked home from a Friday night football game with two friends.

Richard Dieter, director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, said he knows of only one inmate who was subjected to more than one execution.

A first attempt to execute Willie Francis in 1946 by electrocution in Louisiana did not work. He was returned to death row for nearly a year while the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether a second electrocution would be unconstitutional.

In 2007, the Georgia execution of inmate John Hightower was delayed for several minutes while officials struggled to find a suitable vein in his left arm.

Florida halted executions after the death of Angel Diaz in December 2006 was delayed for 34 minutes because needles were accidentally pushed through his veins, causing the chemicals to go into his muscles instead. Florida resumed executions in 2008 under new procedures.

In Texas in 2000, the execution of Claude Jones was delayed by about 30 minutes because of difficulties finding a vein in either arm to insert the drugs. Authorities used a vein in his left leg instead.

Problems accessing veins also delayed Ohio executions in 2006 and 2007.

In 2006, the execution of Joseph Clark was delayed for more than an hour after the team failed to properly attach an IV, an incident that led to changes in Ohio's execution process.

The state also had difficulty finding the veins of inmate Christopher Newton, whose May 2007 execution was delayed nearly two hours.

Since Clark, the state's execution rules have allowed team members to take as much time as they need to find the best vein for the IVs that carry the three lethal chemicals.

Ohio has executed 32 men since Wilford Berry in 1999, an execution slightly delayed also because of problems finding a vein.

___

Associated Press Writers Stephen Majors in Lucasville and JoAnne Viviano in Columbus contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects day of scheduled execution to 'Tuesday' from 'Wednesday' in graf 4. MULTIMEDIA: For Ohio members, copies of the governor's reprieve and a letter asking the Ohio Supreme Court to intervene are in the state folder at ftp://ftp.ap.org.)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090916/ap_on_re_us/us_ohio_execution

[Marian Paroo]

A friend of mine was a nurse in a private hospital in the 50s or 60s. They had a patient who was a heroin addict. Very rich heroin addict. All very hush-hush, because I think according to the law they had to turn him in, and not treat him.

Anyway, the only reason he wanted to be treated for his addiction and gotten off heroin, was that he didn't have a vein left that he could use for injection.

He told her that if he could still inject, he would never give it up.

[samanthajane13]

Lawyers try to stop second Ohio execution try

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press Writer Andrew Welsh-huggins, Associated Press Writer – 57 mins ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Lawyers plan state and federal lawsuits and a request to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland to stop next week's unprecedented second execution attempt of a man whose lethal injection failed on Tuesday.

Cleveland attorney Tim Sweeney said Thursday that he expects lawsuits to be filed no later than Friday in an effort to halt the next attempt to put Romell Broom to death.

Sweeney argues that a second try at an execution is unconstitutional. At the very least, he said, Strickland should further delay Tuesday's execution.

Broom "sustained both physical and mental injuries," Sweeney said. "It's going to take time for all the psychic trauma to dissipate. Even if it never goes away, I think it's wrong to try to do it again so quickly in these circumstances."

Strickland stopped Broom's execution after executioners tried unsuccessfully for two hours to find a usable vein. Broom, who at one point wiped his face with a tissue and appeared to be weeping, told his attorneys he was pricked as many as 18 times.

Broom, 53, was sentenced to die for the rape and stabbing death of a 14-year-old Tryna Middleton, a girl he kidnapped in Cleveland in 1984.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said it was ironic that Broom was complaining about the execution given the nature of his crime.

"I am absolutely certain that it was Tryna Middleton that suffered from cruel and unusual punishment," Mason said.

Broom remains at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where the prison system is monitoring how much he's drinking, said prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn. Officials want to make sure Broom is not dehydrated before the execution, but they can't force him to drink more, she said.

Dehydration could make it more difficult to find veins, however, Walburn said there's no evidence that caused Tuesday's problems.

Another execution attempt could include the same veins they tried accessing Tuesday or other points on his arms, legs or feet, Walburn said.

Late Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost agreed to give lawyers challenging Ohio's lethal injection system in an unrelated lawsuit more time to gather information related to the Broom case. Their original deadline for gathering information had passed.

Federal public defender David Stebbins, who's working on the earlier lawsuit, said he plans to interview Broom on Monday in the Southern Ohio facility in Lucasville.

The fact that Broom survived the execution "creates a singular opportunity to confirm that he, in fact, experienced serious pain in violation of his constitutional rights, not just a 'substantial risk' of serious pain," Stebbins and attorney Allen Bohnert argued in a court filing.

The only case similar to the Broom execution happened in Louisiana in 1946, when a first attempt to execute Willie Francis did not work. Francis was returned to death row for nearly a year while the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether a second electrocution would be unconstitutional.

The court ultimately ruled against Francis 5-4 and he was put to death in 1947.

Broom has a much stronger case than Francis, said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor and death penalty expert.

It was unclear how far the first execution actually went and whether Francis experienced the electric current, she said. The court's uncertainty about that fact played a major role in its decision to return him to the electric chair, Denno said.

In the case of Broom, however, "There's absolutely no question that the execution process started," she said.

Justice Felix Frankfurter, a swing vote in the court's 1947 decision, also said a different set of facts could have led to a different decision.

Those facts could include "a series of abortive attempts at electrocution," he wrote.

Denno said that's clearly the case with the Broom execution attempt.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090918/ap_on_re_us/us_ohio_execution