Capital punishment

Ohio Supreme Court to rule on second execution attempt

The Columbus Dispatch

The Ohio Supreme Court will hear convicted killer Romell Broom’s argument that the state should not get a second chance to try to execute him.

The court agreed this week to hear the appeal of Broom, 57, who was sentenced to death for the 1984 abduction, rape and murder of Tryna Middleton, 14, of Cleveland, as she walked home from a football game.

Attorneys Adele S. Shank of Columbus and Timothy Sweeney of Cleveland argue that Broom would face unconstitutional “double jeopardy” if the state tries a second time to execute him. They also say it would violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Broom was scheduled to be executed on Sept. 15, 2009, but the execution was halted by Gov. Ted Strickland after prison medical technicians spent two hours unsuccessfully trying to find suitable veins for inserting IV needles. Broom was jabbed 18 times with needles and at one point began pointing out new places on his arms to try.

Strickland postponed Broom’s execution a week, but then it was pushed back indefinitely.

Since then, Broom has lost appeals to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and the 8th District Court of Appeals. However, the Ohio Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal to consider only the claims about double jeopardy, cruel and unusual punishment and a technical issue.

A hearing date has not been set in the case.

Shank said that although the state has not been pushing for a new execution date for Broom, “as long as his death sentence stands, it’s still hanging over his head.”

Broom had a pattern of molesting young girls, according to court records. He was arrested three months after Middleton’s murder when he forced an 11-year-old into his car. He previously served 81/2 years in prison for raping a 12-year-old.

In another Death Row case, attorneys for Ronald Phillips asked for a delay in his execution until 2016 so his mother can lose enough weight to receive a kidney transplant from him. Gov. John Kasich already had granted a reprieve from November 2013 until July. After a federal judge’s temporary moratorium on the death penalty this week, Kasich moved the date to Sept. 18. His original reprieve for a potential organ transplant was the first in U.S. history for an inmate about to be executed.

Donna Phillips, who has end-stage renal disease, weighs more than 300 pounds and is older than 65. She has lost a foot to diabetes and has used a wheelchair for about a decade. She is seeing doctors about possible bariatric surgery so she can shed enough pounds to be eligible for the transplant. Medicare would cover both operations, the lawyers say.

She made a personal plea to delay the execution in a three-page letter to Kasich.

The state prisons agency already has informed Ronald Phillips that his request for post-execution transplants may not be honored by federal oversight bodies.

In 1993, Phillips raped, beat and killed the 3-year-old daughter of his girlfriend at the time.