Ohio prison officials said death row inmate Romell Broom, who survived an attempt to execute him by lethal injection in 2009, died on Monday of possible complications from COVID-19 at 64.
Sarah French, a spokeswoman for the state prison system, told The Columbus Dispatch that Broom was placed on the “list of likely COVIDs” maintained by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The list includes inmates with suspected death from coronavirus, who are awaiting death certificates.
Broom became the second inmate nationally to survive an attempted execution in 2009.
Then, at 53, the convict wept in pain during the unsuccessful attempt to kill him with a lethal injection, according to the agency. The execution was interrupted after two hours because the technicians did not find a suitable vein.
Bloom’s lawyers argued that he should not be subjected to a second attempt at execution and presented arguments to the Supreme Court, noted The Dispatch.
Attorneys Timothy Sweeney and Adele Shank said in a statement that Broom survived in 2009 “only to live with the growing fear and anguish that the same process would be used with him in his next execution”.
“Let your ticket this way, and not in the execution chamber, be the final word on whether a second attempt should have been considered,” said the lawyers.
Dispatch reported that, since the introduction of the electric chair, only three other death row inmates in the United States have survived the first attempts to execute them after the process was initiated.
Broom was sentenced to death in 1984 after being convicted of raping and killing 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after kidnapping her in Cleveland.
The detainee returned to death row after his unsuccessful execution attempt and had a second meeting scheduled for June. However, Gov. Mike DeWine
Mike DeWineDecember the deadliest month of the COVID-19 pandemic DeWine: Midwestern governors strengthened relations during the fight against the pandemic against the “common enemy”. government continues vaccine launch MORE (R) issued an extension and postponed it to March 2022.
Earlier this month, DeWine announced that lethal injections will no longer be an option for the death penalty in the future.
“Lethal injection seems impossible from a practical point of view today,” said DeWine.