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COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 16 (UPI) -- An execution of an inmate can proceed if a prior execution failed, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. In a 4-3 decision regarding convicted murderer Romell Broom, 60, whose 2009 execution by lethal injection of chemicals was mishandled, the court said another attempt at execution would not violate Broom's Eighth Amendment rights to not be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
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"The execution attempt was halted after preparations to establish a viable IV (intravenous) line were unsuccessful. The establishment of viable IV lines is a necessary preliminary step, but it does not, by itself, place the prisoner at risk of death. As the statute makes clear, the execution commences when the lethal drug enters the IV line. In this case, because the attempt did not proceed to the point of injection of a lethal drug into the IV line ... the state is not barred from a second attempt to execute Broom's death sentence," Justice Judith Lanzinger wrote in a 34-page opinion.
Because the deadly cocktail of drugs never entered Broom's body, the procedure could not be regarded as a failed execution, the ruling stated. The execution attempt took over two hours, and included 18 attempts to insert intravenous needles.
Ohio has put 21 people to death since the attempt to execute Broom, who was convicted of raping and killing a 14-year-old girl in 1984.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice William O'Neill wrote, "The majority's description of the state's first attempt to put Broom to death chills me to the core. There are state employees who have tragically endured the personal trauma of unsuccessfully attempting to execute a fellow human being. And now we, as a society, are telling them, 'Do it again.' Once again, this case demonstrates that the term 'lethal injection' is merely a convenient euphemism used to aid in turning a blind eye to the real possibility that execution procedures can and do go wrong with predictable and horrendous results."
