Ohio Plans to Try Again as Execution Goes Wrong

The only similar case in modern times, Mr. Dieter said, occurred in
Louisiana in 1946, when electric shock failed to kill a convicted
murderer, Willie Francis. He was electrocuted the next year, after the
United States Supreme Court ruled that executing a prisoner in the wake of
a failed 1st attempt was constitutional.

Tuesday's 1-week postponement was ordered by Gov. Ted Strickland after he
was alerted by the Ohio corrections department that technicians at the
state prison in Lucasville, some 70 miles east of Cincinnati, had
struggled for more than 2 hours to find a suitable vein in either the arms
or the legs of the inmate, Romell Broom, 53.

In a log reviewed by The Associated Press, the executioners attributed
their troubles to past intravenous drug use by Mr. Broom. Amanda Wurst, a
spokeswoman for the governor, said that Mr. Broom had once told officials
he had been an IV drug user but that he had later recanted. His lawyers
said they were not aware of any IV drug use.

Mr. Broom was convicted of the 1984 abduction, rape and killing of Tryna
Middleton, 14, who had been walking home from a football game in Cleveland
with 2 friends.

His lawyers described what happened Tuesday as torture and said they would
try to block the execution. One of them, Adele Shank, said: "He survived
this execution attempt, and they really can't do it again. It was cruel
and unusual punishment."

Ms. Shank watched Tuesday's procedure on closed-circuit television. "I
could see him on the screen," she said, "and it was apparent to me that he
was wincing with pain."

The Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday that
the state must abolish lethal injection.

"This is the 3rd screwed-up execution in 3 years," said Jeffrey M. Gamso
of the A.C.L.U. of Ohio. "They keep tweaking their protocol, but it takes
more than tweaks. They don't know how to do this competently, and they
need to stop."

In referring to 2 previous troubled executions in Ohio, Mr. Gamso was
speaking of the death of Joseph Clark in 2006, delayed more than an hour
because of problems with IV placement, and the 2007 execution of
Christopher Newton, also delayed more than an hour while technicians tried
at least 10 times to insert the IV.

The director of the state corrections department, Terry J. Collins, said
he and his staff were seeking the advice of doctors and others to plan for
a successful execution next Tuesday.

"I won't have discussions about what if it doesn't work next week' at this
point," Mr. Collins said, "because I have confidence that my team will be
able to do its job."

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation,
which supports the death penalty, said problems with veins were inevitable
in lethal injection by IV.

Mr. Scheidegger said he favored execution methods involving intramuscular
injection or a return to gas chambers, but with a poison other than
cyanide, which was long under attack because of the suffering it can
inflict.

Mr. Dieter, of the Death Penalty Information Center, said that given the
likelihood of legal appeals, there was little chance that Mr. Broom would
be put to death next Tuesday.

"The question of whether this is still an acceptable punishment in our
society," he said of executions generally, "is compounded by this
mistake."

(source: New York Times)