Execution survivor stays on death row

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The only inmate in modern history to survive an execution attempt must stay on death row, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a decision that leaves the man’s fate up to the federal courts.

In a separate ruling, the court also determined that Ohio law doesn’t allow a constitutional challenge of lethal injection.

Romell Broom’s execution last year was stopped by Gov. Ted Strickland after an execution team tried for two hours to find a suitable vein. Broom has said he was stuck with needles at least 18 times, with pain so intense that he cried and screamed.

He was sentenced to die for the 1984 rape and slaying of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland.

The court’s decision on the constitutionality of lethal injection answered a question about state law that had been posed by a federal judge. The federal courts have already settled the constitutionality of lethal injection in Ohio in their own rulings on the state’s new execution method, which involved one dose of a fatal drug and a backup procedure if needed.

In Broom’s case, his attorneys argued that no attempt to execute him could be done without violating his constitutional rights prohibiting double jeopardy.