Supreme Court rejects challenge from death row inmate who says he shouldn't be put to death after he survived first execution

  • Romell Broom's first execution was halted after he received 18 needle sticks
  • The convicted killer cried in pain for two hours until it was called off in 2009
  • The death row inmate had challenged a second execution attempt saying it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment
  • But the Supreme Court defeated the appeal by 6-2 meaning it will go ahead
  • It's likley to be years away because of state's supply of lethal injection drugs

By Associated Press

Published: 13:17 EST, 12 December 2016 | Updated: 16:06 EST, 12 December 2016

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a condemned killer who survived his first 2009 botched execution that a second would be unconstitutional.

Lawyers for death row inmate Romell Broom had argued that giving the state prisons agency a second chance to put him to death would amount to cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy.

But on Monday, the Supreme Court rejected Broom's arguments by 6-2.

Slated to die: Death row inmate Romell Broom, 60 (left), was sentenced to die for the 1984 rape and murder of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton (right)

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

In 2009, then-Gov. Ted Strickland stopped Broom's first execution after two hours when executioners failed to find a usable vein following 18 attempts to insert needles, which caused him pain so intense he cried and screamed.

An hour into the execution, the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction recruited a part-time prison doctor with no experience or training with executions to try — again, unsuccessfully — to find a vein.  

Prosecutors had argued double jeopardy doesn't apply because lethal drugs never entered Broom's veins while executioners unsuccessfully tried to hook up an IV.

They also said a previously unsuccessful execution attempt doesn't affect the constitutionality of his death sentence.

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger sided with the state in March, saying the execution never began because the drugs were never administered.

Pricked: Doctors struggled for two hours in 2009 to find a suitable vein in which to inject Broom with lethal drugs. Above, the more than a dozen marks left behind by doctors after the failed execution attempt

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by condemned killer Romell Broom whose 2009 execution was called off after two hours during which he cried in pain while receiving 18 needle sticks

'Because Broom's life was never at risk since the drugs were not introduced, and because the state is committed to carrying out executions in a constitutional manner, we do not believe that it would shock the public's conscience to allow the state to carry out Broom's execution,' Lanzinger wrote. 

Broom has been back on death row since. No new execution date has been set. 

Broom took his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court where Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan said they would have granted his challenge, with Breyer saying the execution attempt took place under 'especially cruel and unusual circumstances.'

But they were overruled by the other justices, and Broom remains on death row.

Despite the ruling, a second execution is years away because of other scheduled executions and uncertainty over the state's supply of lethal injection drugs.

Broom's lawyer called the court's decision a missed opportunity.

The court's 6-2 ruling denies death row inmate Romell Broom the opportunity to argue that giving the state prisons agency a second chance to execute him would amount to cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy (file picture) 

In 1947, Louisiana electrocuted 18-year-old convicted murderer Willie Francis by electric chair a year after an improperly prepared electric chair failed to work

Previous lawsuits alleging that a botched execution violated an inmate's rights involved prisoners who ultimately died, said attorney Adele Shank.

'Here the court had the opportunity to address a case where there was a living person there to vindicate their constitutional rights,' Shank said. 'So it's very disappointing that this unique opportunity was not accepted for review by the court.'

Ohioans to Stop Executions, the state's largest anti-death penalty organization, renewed its call for Republican Gov. John Kasich to grant Broom clemency.

The 60-year-old Broom is only the second inmate in US history to survive an attempted execution.

In 1947, Louisiana electrocuted 18-year-old convicted murderer Willie Francis by electric chair a year after an improperly prepared electric chair failed to work. 

The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow the second execution to proceed, rejecting double jeopardy arguments.

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