What's next for unexecuted inmate?

[BOPCO87]

What's next for unexecuted inmate? Plan still is death
September 17, 2009
By Alan Johnson and Suzanne Hoholik


Romell Broom is in the unique if unenviable position of being the first person in modern American history to face execution a second time.

Broom, 53, a convicted killer from Cleveland, is slated to die Tuesday, a week after Ohio prisons personnel abandoned efforts to start lethal-injection IV lines following two hours of frustration and futility. Gov. Ted Strickland granted a one-week reprieve.

The big question: What will be different the next time?

Ohio has no alternative to lethal injection in capital punishment. The electric chair, "Old Sparky," was permanently unplugged in 2001.

The state does have a few options on the injections, said Dr. Sean Collins, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati.

Radiology equipment could be used to locate a vein farther under the skin, or a line could be inserted into the vein in Broom's neck.

However, those procedures are typically done at hospitals -- usually by physicians. Ohio's execution team is made up of emergency medical technicians.

State prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said officials are assessing what the EMTs are qualified to do -- including possible "additional access points" that could be used for lethal injection.

They are not allowed to do most medical procedures and "will not work outside the scope of what they're trained to do," she said.

"We have absolute confidence in the execution team. We don't believe it (the failed attempt) reflects on their skills and ability. We are not adjusting because of yesterday (Tuesday)."

Prison officials said Broom was a past drug user. Veins of drug users can be the most difficult to access.

On the legal front, Broom's attorneys, S. Adele Shank of Columbus and Timothy Sweeney of Cleveland, said they almost certainly will file legal challenges to block round two. Sweeney said Broom needs time to heal from what Broom told his attorneys were 18 different needle sticks in his arms and legs.

The attorneys will consider filing an appeal based on the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

"Ohio has a special statutory provision that requires executions to be 'quick and painless,' " Sweeney said. "This execution team has demonstrated clearly they're incapable (of) providing a quick and painless execution to Mr. Broom."

Broom abducted 14-year-old Tryna Middleton of Cleveland as she walked home from a football game on Sept. 21, 1984, then raped her and stabbed her to death.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, said he is not aware of any other time in the modern history of capital punishment when an execution was started, then stopped.

"It's a dramatic example of problems with lethal injection in Ohio and elsewhere," Dieter said. "This is not a reliable process. Everybody would want this done in a more reliable and humane way. It's going to require some soul-searching."

Dr. Jonathan Groner, a pediatric surgeon at Nationwide Children's Hospital and a death-penalty opponent, agreed that halting a lethal injection is unprecedented.

Groner said the EMTs assigned to do the IV work on lethal injections are under-trained and inexperienced.

"The ball's clearly in the governor's court now. This is not golf. There's no mulligan. There's no do-over."

Strickland said yesterday that the Broom case presented a "very unusual set of circumstances" that does not warrant an overall review of capital punishment in Ohio.

"The EMTs, my understanding is, are adequately trained," the governor said. " ... My understanding is that the problem is associated with the physical condition of the inmate, not the inability of the EMTs to perform as they were required to perform."

But like anything in medicine, it takes practice to get good at inserting an IV line.

Nurses at Ohio State University Medical Center, for example, can insert at least two IV lines a day. And if they have trouble getting one in after two tries, they'll ask someone more experienced.

"It's a thing you have to keep doing and doing, and over time you get a feel," said Shirley McCoy, nursing staff-development specialist at the OSU Medical Center. "You can decide by looking and feeling the vein; it's just really a skill that nurses build up over time."

The EMTs on the state's execution team are primarily corrections employees who may work part time on local fire departments.

The last U.S. case somewhat similar to the botched Broom execution happened in Louisiana on May 3, 1946, death-penalty experts said.

Condemned killer Willie Francis survived an execution attempt when the electric chair, nicknamed "Gruesome Gertie," was incorrectly connected and provided a jolt but not a lethal shock.

"I'm not dying!" the teen-age inmate reportedly said.

Francis' attorney filed an appeal saying that a second execution attempt would violate his client's constitutional rights to avoid double jeopardy and cruel and unusual punishment.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal in a 5-4 decision. Francis was executed May 9, 1947.

[DeadManWalking]

The jugular vein is not hard to find at all.

[Iowa #1603]

Originally Posted by DeadManWalking

The jugular vein is not hard to find at all.

Central lines take practice. While I was at one time trained to insert subclavian, & femoral lines................doing one in reality was usually a "desperation" shot when nothing else would work.

The article is a bit dramatic.

There have been several instances where teams have had problems inserting lines, this just happens to be the first time that the state "gave up" and deiced to wait for a better planned attempt. There was one a few yrs back where the worked on the arm for over two hours before an EMT did a "cut down" on the bicep area and was able to insert the line.

Several inmate have had IV's inserted in the prep area and have then had the courts impose a stay---------------

The state will get it right next time.

[Mudflap]

Broom's lawyers are yelling "cruel and unusual". IMHO it may be a bit unusual to stop (especially if the team considered that they might have been hurting the guy who raped and stabbed a young girl to death) but it certainly isn't cruel.

It isn't like they started the flow of drugs and Broom survived. They were prepping Broom to serve his sentence... not much different than if they were prepping him for any other method of execution. I don't agree that it was THAT much of a physically painful procedure for Broom, and the mental anguish he went through would have been pretty much the same if they were able to get the IV in. After all, he was lying on the gurney and believed he would be dead soon.

"The EMTs, my understanding is, are adequately trained," the governor said. " ... My understanding is that the problem is associated with the physical condition of the inmate, not the inability of the EMTs to perform as they were required to perform."

With that said, Ohio was in a no-win situation no matter what they did.