Gov. Ted Strickland denies clemency for death row inmate

COLUMBUS (AP) — Gov. Ted Strickland denied clemency today to a death row inmate who raped and stabbed to death a 14-year-old girl 25 years ago.

Romell Broom, 53, is scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. Tuesday for the death of Tryna Middleton, who was abducted at knifepoint on Sept. 21, 1984, as she walked home from a Friday night football game with two friends.

He was transferred this morning from death row at a prison in Youngstown to the death house at the Lucasville prison in southern Ohio, said state prisons department spokeswoman Julie Walburn.

Strickland’s decision to deny clemency follows the recommendation of the Ohio Parole Board. Broom during the weekend asked both the U.S. District Court in Cleveland and in the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his executions and was awaiting decisions from both courts today.