U.S. execution fails over inmate's unsuitable veins

[IDemo]

Source: Reuters

Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:04pm EDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Executioners couldn't find a suitable vein in which to inject drugs to kill a 53-year-old murderer, who then got a one-week reprieve from the governor so Ohio prison officials can figure out what to do.

"This is uncharted territory for us," prison spokeswoman Julie Walburn said of the difficulty in killing convicted rapist and murderer Romell Broom.

Democratic Governor Ted Strickland issued the reprieve at the request of the prison warden overseeing the state's execution chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

Walburn said prison officials would consult "several people" about how to perform Broom's execution, which by state law must be done by lethal injection.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE58E87820090915

[jaysunb]

1. The Appeal will be based on :

Cruel & unusual punishment. ( torture )

Too bad for this guy under the current makeup of the court.

Another good reason to scrap the whole practice.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

9. or Double Jeopardy

Traditionally the failure of the condemned to die was grounds for clemency, at least in more enlightened times, such as the 19th Century.

[Treo]

14. Or go back to firing squads NT

[jmodden]

35. Nitrogen asphyxiation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_asphyxiation

[Kaleva]

2. Lethally inject a bullet. It has worked before.

While I'm against capital punishment, I feel no sympathy for convicted murderers and thus make snarky jokes at their expense.

[customerserviceguy]

8. Strangely enough, this is justice

This scum both raped and killed a 14 year old girl, he gets to lie down on the gurney twice, once for each crime.

Reminds me of a story I read about a gallows trapdoor failing to open twice for a man who killed three people...

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

13. John 'Babbacombe' Lee - the man who couldn't be hanged

the irony is he was probably innocent in the first place, supposedly the reason the gallows failed is because the combined weight of the hangman, priest and warden, all men of more than 200lbs put too much pressure on the trap door for it to open. He stated at his sentencing God would not allow him to be hanged and the media had an orgy when they failed to hang him three times.

He was released in 1907 and disappeared into alcoholism,

[harry_pothead]

3. We should use laser guillotines.

Short, painless, and awesomely futuristic.

[Ian David]

12. I'm against the death penalty, but I think my idea is better.

Whole-head pulverization or evaporation.

Same effect as a bullet to the brain, except you just blow-up the whole brain all at once with explosives.

Not pretty to look at, but you're guaranteed not to know what hit you.

[comtec]

47. the guillotine is in fact completely painless already

it was designed by a french doctor to make execution as quick and painless for the victim as possible.
ironically he died by it.

my two cents, 1g (that's 1000mg) of morphine, stop the heart, dead. good-vein optional - IE in the neak or chest, or leg or... - and he's just as dead, no concern of cruel burning in his veins etc. and it's probably cheaper to use excess morphine or ether.

[Beer on a stick]

68. Well, no, not at all. There is no way to determine that effect, and thus....

it cannot be considered valid.

[laconicsax]

4. Somehow this reminds me of the Inquisition...

...specifically the part where a panel would convene to deliberate how to go about torturing someone. What an enlightened age we live in.

[JerseygirlCT]

5. If this isn't a perfect snapshot of the utter immorality of

the death penalty...

[Auggie]

6. +1

Well said

[8 track mind]

11. f-ing barbaric n/t

[AtheistCrusader]

36. Dunno. They COULD have just gotten a really big needle and stuck it right in his heart.

This says to me that the process works. They will not do something likely to physically torture and not kill the condemned.

Good for them. I have no interest in any psychological suffering he may be experiencing. Fuck him.



On the other hand, I am opposed to the death penalty on the grounds it is used in some cases where the condemned is probably innocent. In some cases, CERTAINLY innocent. This case does not move me in one direction or the other. Does not provide me any new grounds to oppose the DP.

Due process sometimes isn't. Unfortunate reality of our system, but hey, we work to make it better.

[Solly Mack]

7. Damn

[undeterred]

10. Method is always a problem.

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

From Enough Rope | Written c. 1926 Dorothy Parker

[24601]

15. He Raped and Murdered 14-year old Tryna Middleton in 1984.

It becomes personal when my daughter will be 14 in two weeks. My heart goes out to the Middleton family.

Romell Broom on the other hand has had 25 years to reflect about his crime and prepare for his death.

[elocs]

21. Felt the same a few years ago when those U.S. soldiers raped and killed the 15 year old Iraqi girl

along with her little sister, mother and father. My own daughter was 15 then, so it was really brought home to me. Unfortunately Iraqi lives are not valued as highly as ours.

[24601]

27. Speak for yourself when it comes to valuing lives. Unless you were

on both juries, you have no firsthand knowledge of what each jury heard, you are presumptuous to speak for them and you should stop
playing the unwarranted race card. Ohio isn't Texas and isn't run by fundies. If clemency is warranted, do you not trust Ted Strickland to

I have no information regarding the mental state of Romell Broom - be careful searching as some of the related web pages are infected.

It is published that the former soldier convicted in the Iraqi murders was discharged for "mental problems." Receiving five consecutive life sentences, he escaped the death penalty when the jury could not agree on death. I do not want to change that standard requiring unanimity for death, do you?

By your standard, states without death penalties value life less than states that execute. But in any case, when you compare the total number of murders annually, and compare that to the number of executions, there's no way your statement holds.

[elocs]

48. You know, I just not going to bother with you. Ignore.

I hope you understand exactly what I am saying you can do?

[Doremus]

16. It's barbaric expecting laymen to administer lethal drugs.

It should have been ruled cruel and inhuman but as we know it wasn't so many more will have to die painful deaths .... :mad:

[Old Hob]

17. damn, walking down that hallway once would be bad enough but twice?

[Pavulon]

18. halothane

go to sleep, never wake up.

[twitomy]

19. Accute lead poisoning doesnt require veins..

just a steady hand.

[Botany]

20. He has veins in his legs and butt that can be used and if not .....

... two .32 caliber bullets to the brain stem are faster and cheaper than lethal injection.

I am opposed to capital punishment because it costs more than life w/ out parole, it takes way
to long to "do it," and that the legal help that the convicted get in many cases is very bad but as long
as we are going to have it we might as well make it as quick, cheap, and painless as possible ....
shooting or hanging does the trick ..... no need to sugar coat it ..... it is about killing a person.

[Taverner]

24. Don't Heroin Addicts shoot in some creative places?

Maybe they should consult a Heroin Addict?

[Botany]

26. no need ..... plenty of places

http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01883/introtocircman.gi

he can have surgery under a local anesthetic and a shunt can be placed into a vein or they can hit him in the
legs or between the toes. I say just shoot him and be done with it.

[elocs]

22. I'm against the death penality, but I'll shed no crocodile tears for this POS.

Not one.

[Taverner]

25. I agree 100%

I'm not against the DP because I feel sorry for them

I am against it because it should not be a power given to the state

[mvd]

44. That's how I feel

100% anti-death penalty for many reasons. But it's hard to shed tears. I just show my support for abolishing the DP consistently out of principle without getting too involved defending the person.

[Taverner]

23. What about a Cyanide Enema?

[Kaleva]

28. He'll get to meet his maker without that bloated feeling.

[PurpleChez]

33. What a combination...

gallows humor and enema fetishism. Excuse me while I touch myself.


I oppose the death penalty in all its forms. I can muster very little sympathy for scum who hurt children. And I've got a sick, sick sense of humor.

[Taverner]

34. I don't understand - was I bad or good

Or so bad I'm good?

[PurpleChez]

52. Like the good book says...

...perversion is in the eye of the beholder.

[maseman]

29. Maybe it is a sign that Jesus Christ doesn't

want us to murder him??

[Freddie Stubbs]

30. Are all of the sucessful executions signs that Jesus Christ approved?

;)

[maseman]

57. I'll use the typically Christian answer

Have faith in God. He is all knowing and has his reasons. Don't question him or you'll burn.

Something like that.

[proteus_lives]

31. Hang him.

Hanging (done right) is quick and painless. It should be the standard mode of execution.

[Odin2005]

32. Just shoot the monster.

[ShortnFiery]

37. Mature?

How about do what MOST other civilized western nations do: Life in Prison without the possibility for parole?

Abolish the Death Penalty

http://www.antideathpenalty.org/

[Odin2005]

38. Why waste food and water on these people?

[mvd]

39. I agree; it's the humane and fair thing to do

:hi:

[Endangered Specie]

41. key word there being "most"

and not all of those western nations are that civilized, either.

[liquid diamond]

43. Yes. A bullet to the head would be quick and humane.

[Endangered Specie]

40. This is why I don't get all these complicated execution methods...

bullet to the head... simple, effective, fast, cheap (albeit a bit messy).
Or one of those bolt guns they use on cattle.

Any this guy is why we should keep capital punishment on the books. Reserved only for the worst of the worst.

[mvd]

42. Hi, ES

You and I will always disagree on this. :hi:

[Endangered Specie]

67. The day everyone on here agrees with everyone else...

would be a very very sad day... :hi:

[Treo]

46. The problem W/ all these complicated methods of execution

Is that they require somebody to actually be the one that kills the guy, especially the bullet to the back of the head. Say what you want but if you’re the one you will carry it for the rest of your life. I can’t imagine what it would be like if you got picked for the detail more than once.
Why not simply devise a gas chamber that uses Carbon Monoxide or someone said halothane and run it by computer? The criminal simply falls asleep and never wakes up.

[Sub Atomic]

63. That's why firing squads were so effective.

All but one shooter was given blanks. Nobody knew who actually finished the d-bag.

[Treo]

65. Unfortunately

That no longer works. W/ advances in modern ammunition you'd know as soon as you fired whether or not you had a blank. Also, that method still requires someone to aim a high powered rifle at another human being and pull the trigger in cold blood. Thanks, no

[Endangered Specie]

66. Simple solution... affix gun to device with three buttons

only one button, randomized by computer pulls trigger of gun. Three people push one of the three buttons. Destroy computer memory immediately after.

Pretty much the same thing they do with lethal injection

[demwing]

45. Anesthesia first.

then remove the head by whatever means available. A surgical saw seems appropriate.

No pain, no fuck ups.

[WriteDown]

49. And a bonus....

Works on vampires too.

[demwing]

61. And all your garden variety

zombies as well, including undead South Carolinian Republican Congressmen

[Tim01]

50. Get a rope. nt

[NYC Liberal]

51. Seems we have some DUers who support cruel & unusual punishment.

So long as it's someone we can all hate. Then it's ok.

:puke:

Abolish the death penalty. Life behind bars is a more fitting punishment.

[treestar]

58. Yes. Death is too final for human endeavor.

There is always a possibility of human error, too. People have been wrongly convicted. And even if they are rightly convicted, killing them is just barbaric. We have the ability to keep them behind bars for life.

[NYC Liberal]

59. Amazing that we are so against torture here, yet KILLING people is perfectly OK.

How easy it is to scream for blood for someone who has committed such heinous acts.

Opposing the death penalty has less to do with sympathy or lack of it for criminals. It has to do with how we as a "civilized" society act. If we go around killing people (no mater how contemptible) we have no moral leg to stand on when opposing things like torture.

[Ignis]

64. Precisely.

We can begin to have a discussion on the morality of capital punishment once we've established a ridiculously high rate of convictions that involve confessions and strong DNA evidence.

Until then, we'll just keep killing innocent people, and that's hardly a solid moral footing for a democracy/republic, is it?

[crim son]

53. I can't support CP; as somebody said above, it isn't a power the State should have.

But I feel just as powerfully that the Public shouldn't have to support people like this, not provide them with food and heat and shelter. My (impractical) solution has always been to have them work in prison to earn themselves a basic standard of living and nothing more. As for the issue of cruel and unusual punishment, I believe the suffering incurred should not exceed nor fall short of whatever the murderer imposed on his or her victim/s.

[bejamin wood]

54. Sending a man to death twice is torture

This is not good and certainly not moral, but I'm against murder of all forms.

[Hepburn]

55. IMO...

...if he survived the execution, that is the end of the discussion.

[No Elephants]

56. Wow. Every blood draw and CT with contrast I've had in the last ten years

has been a horror show. I never thought of the upside. Maybe I can get away with murder. Literally.



Oh, wait. My state has no death penalty. I'd get life in prison.










never mind.

[BigD_95]

60. I always thought

the death penalty should be on PPV. Try and make it as mentally painful for the guy as possible. Bright lights..... Long walk to the death chamber. ... The guy screaming and fighting his way there. Make it look like the most horrific thing possible. Use the money from the PPV's to help pay for the prisons.


Then maybe these sick crazy bastards would think twice about taking lives.

[Treo]

62. For every one it deterred

You'd get two that did it just for the celebrity status.

OT warning

Someone once said that anytime there's a mass shooting the press should do every thing they can to minimize the shooter. No mention buy name, no photos, just a blurb about some poor demented loser just shot up such and such location and on to the victims.

The idea was to cut down on copy cats looking for their 15 minutes

[Alamuti Lotus]

69. Can they find his heart? Inject it in there, see what happens

Should reach a vein or two from there..