Hot Topic (9/19): Execution attempt = "cruel and unusual punishment"?
Ohio Plans to Try Again as Execution Goes Wrong
CINCINNATI — The State of Ohio plans to try again next week to execute a convicted rapist-murderer, after a team of technicians spent two hours on Tuesday in an unsuccessful effort to inject him with lethal drugs.
This is the first time an execution by lethal injection in the United States has failed and then been rescheduled, according to Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, in Washington.
The only similar case in modern times, Mr. Dieter said, occurred in Louisiana in 1946, when electric shock failed to kill a convicted murderer, Willie Francis. He was electrocuted the next year, after the United States Supreme Court ruled that executing a prisoner in the wake of a failed first attempt was constitutional.
Tuesday’s one-week postponement was ordered by Gov. Ted Strickland after he was alerted by the Ohio corrections department that technicians at the state prison in Lucasville, some 70 miles east of Cincinnati, had struggled for more than two hours to find a suitable vein in either the arms or the legs of the inmate, Romell Broom, 53.
In a log reviewed by The Associated Press, the executioners attributed their troubles to past intravenous drug use by Mr. Broom. Julie Walburn, a spokeswoman for the Ohio corrections department, said that Mr. Broom had once told officials he had been an IV drug user but that he had later recanted. His lawyers said they were not aware of any IV drug use.
Mr. Broom was convicted of the 1984 abduction, rape and killing of Tryna Middleton, 14, who had been walking home from a football game in Cleveland with two friends.
His lawyers described what happened Tuesday as torture and said they would try to block the execution. One of them, Adele Shank, said: “He survived this execution attempt, and they really can’t do it again. It was cruel and unusual punishment.”
Ms. Shank watched Tuesday’s procedure on closed-circuit television. “I could see him on the screen,” she said, “and it was apparent to me that he was wincing with pain.”
The Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday that the state must abolish lethal injection.
“This is the third screwed-up execution in three years,” said Jeffrey M. Gamso of the A.C.L.U. of Ohio. “They keep tweaking their protocol, but it takes more than tweaks. They don’t know how to do this competently, and they need to stop.”
In referring to two previous troubled executions in Ohio, Mr. Gamso was speaking of the death of Joseph Clark in 2006, delayed more than an hour because of problems with IV placement, and the 2007 execution of Christopher Newton, also delayed more than an hour while technicians tried at least 10 times to insert the IV.
The director of the state corrections department, Terry J. Collins, said he and his staff were seeking the advice of doctors and others to plan for a successful execution next Tuesday.
“I won’t have discussions about ‘what if it doesn’t work next week’ at this point,” Mr. Collins said, “because I have confidence that my team will be able to do its job.”
Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which supports the death penalty, said problems with veins were inevitable in lethal injection by IV.
Mr. Scheidegger said he favored execution methods involving intramuscular injection or a return to gas chambers, but with a poison other than cyanide, which was long under attack because of the suffering it can inflict.
Mr. Dieter, of the Death Penalty Information Center, said that given the likelihood of legal appeals, there was little chance that Mr. Broom would be put to death next Tuesday.
“The question of whether this is still an acceptable punishment in our society,” he said of executions generally, “is compounded by this mistake.”
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Do you think that this botched execution amounts to "cruel and unusual punishment"?
Are you in favor of the death penalty? If so, what method do you favor?
Any other thoughts regarding this incident?
It's no more cruel and unusual than what he probably did to his victim. I don't think they went on to look for other obvious veins.....legs, testicles, etc. They should have a 2nd mode in place in the event the first one doesn't work. Just because he wrecked his veins through drug addiction....he now escapes the death penalty.
Couldn't have said it better myself. What do they think he did to his victims, I'm sure it wasn't a walk in the park.
Quoting EireLass:
It's no more cruel and unusual than what he probably did to his victim. I don't think they went on to look for other obvious veins.....legs, testicles, etc. They should have a 2nd mode in place in the event the first one doesn't work. Just because he wrecked his veins through drug addiction....he now escapes the death penalty.
I will never understand how we worry about a vicious murderer's treatment. Would it be less cruel to abduct, rape & torture then kill him - an eye for an eye? It makes me ill to see his lawyers fighting to give him life - where were his lawyers when he was taking the life of a young girl, why didn't they fight for her?
i agree with all of you- this was not a botched attempt at excuction, just a tech error that they could not forsee.. and they stoped the exacuction because they had to search for a god vein?? please this is just wacked, dont we have more things to do with our time and money as taxpayers than to spend it on debating this as crule and unusuall.. thats why i say hang em- rope is cheap! we can afford to buy new rope every hanging .. better yet public stoning, i'll bring my own rocks any day! people like this convict do not have rights in my opinion, they forfitted them when they CHOOSE to take a life...
Quoting EireLass:
It's no more cruel and unusual than what he probably did to his victim. I don't think they went on to look for other obvious veins.....legs, testicles, etc. They should have a 2nd mode in place in the event the first one doesn't work. Just because he wrecked his veins through drug addiction....he now escapes the death penalty.
I second your thoughts. Besides, it's not -that bad- to have to deal with being poked repeatedly. Is it fun? No. But I have to get poked at least 10 times they need to take blood or put an IV in me before they can find a viable vein.
If they had been able to get a vein to work and actually given him the lethal injection and he didn't die then i would call this a botched attempt. Not being able to find a vein to put the needle in? Thats a technical error.
He was wincing in pain because of the attempts to put in the needle? Whatever, I've been poked a lot in an attempt to get a needle in my arms and it is not cruel and unusual punishment, its not that big a pain.
I'm not sure why they don't have a nurse/doctor or someone along those lines to put in an IV before they go to the chambers that the lethal injections are given to avoid this kind of problem.
Only in America would we fight for the rights of a convicted killer. A bullet to the head would be cheaper and easier. I would be inclined to require torture and death as he treated his innocent victim. Perhaps anal rape and strangulation ? Why they didn't shoot the drug in his juglar vein or straight into his heart is a mystery to me.
Eight Year Old Girl Given "Catastrophe Award" By Teacher
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on Sep. 19, 2009 at 2:04 AM