Ohio Plans to Try Again as Execution Goes Wrong

[FlyingDutchman]

Ohio Plans to Try Again as Execution Goes Wrong

CINCINNATI — The State of Ohio plans to try again next week to execute a convicted rapist-murderer, after a team of technicians spent two hours on Tuesday in an unsuccessful effort to inject him with lethal drugs.

This is the first time an execution by lethal injection in the United States has failed and then been rescheduled, according to Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, in Washington.

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 first attempt was constitutional.

Tuesday’s one-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 two 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 two 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 third screwed-up execution in three 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 two 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.”

John Schwartz contributed reporting from New York
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/us...html?th&emc=th

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How can this go wrong???????? Jeez?????? What is up with these people? I would say, can't find the vein, lets just shoot him or chop of his head.

That reminds me. When I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia in the 1990's, and I was at "chop square" behind the main mosque. Sometimes the guys with the blade missed the neck (they would chop into the shoulder) and had to do it again by aiming for the neck. I witnessed a very in-experienced "head chopper" who gauged several times in the shoulder before he actually chopped the head off. It was one bloody gory mess.

I guess you need to practice somewhere.

[Rita]

This is my favorite part:

"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.”

As though we are suppose to feel for the poor guy. *rolls eyes*

[knottyknicky]

Does this mean he gets two last meals? If so that is SO unfair.

[BloodyZeal]

LOL Fail-Death FTW

[Zahara]

Um....I volunteer to make sure he snuffs it this time! I do agree that the way we deal with the death penalty in this country needs a HUGE revamp, but some people just don't deserve to share my gene pool. Child murderers/rapist top that list for me.
Fuck him, I hope they cause him severe pain before sending him to the hell he deserves. If there was any justice they'd let the parents do it.

[dundun]

god, i miss the days when people were killed first time round.

[SexySumo]

I like China's plan where they shoot em and then charge the family for the cost of the bullet.

[analingus]

That dude should be bludgeoned to death!


I get pretty heated when guys oogle my daughter. If some sick fuck raped and killed my daughter I would skin that fucker and then throw him in the dirt and kick him to death!

[FlyingDutchman]

Originally Posted by Rita

This is my favorite part:

"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.”

As though we are suppose to feel for the poor guy. *rolls eyes*

The government is trying to do this as "humane" as possible. I did not know the death penalty was "humane".

[Yas]

I still dont get it why it still exists...

[CrowsEye]

Holy shit. That's insane. Either that guy's some sort of superman, or they're really fucking something up over on their side. And seriously, IV injections are not really that humane at all. HELL, It's human euthanasia. Just shoot the guy in the face. If anything, that's more humane. It's fast, and the guy doesn't even have time to feel it...I dunno. /rant.

[And by the way, Dutchman, these kind of posts are part of the reason I love you. Because...Well, you stray from the 'norm' here on the forums. You don't post repeat threads like, "OH, HAY, DO U LYK CREAMPIES" and shit like that. You post stuff that makes me think. And I really like that.]

[FlyingDutchman]

Originally Posted by Zahara

Um....I volunteer to make sure he snuffs it this time! I do agree that the way we deal with the death penalty in this country needs a HUGE revamp, but some people just don't deserve to share my gene pool. Child murderers/rapist top that list for me.
Fuck him, I hope they cause him severe pain before sending him to the hell he deserves. If there was any justice they'd let the parents do it.

My thoughts exactly. We do not need people like that in the gene pool. Actually all these people that are in this gene pool need to be shipped to an island. Then let them figure it out on there own. Let them kill each other. Plenty of islands in the pacific ocean. Jus drop them there. Either by parachute or fly over low and push them ou of the plane (it has been done before in the Middle East and it works).

Why are we as Western Nations spending so much money, when the person is guilty as hell. The Middle East and S. E. Asia got it right. Guilty? = death penalty. No buts or arguments. Move'm out.

Again, cruel, you say" I am just culling the herd.

[FlyingDutchman]

Originally Posted by CrowsEye

[And by the way, Dutchman, these kind of posts are part of the reason I love you. Because...Well, you stray from the 'norm' here on the forums. You don't post repeat threads like, "OH, HAY, DO U LYK CREAMPIES" and shit like that. You post stuff that makes me think. And I really like that.]

Thank you Crows Eye, I am honored and I enjoy reading peoples opinion of what I post........ Again .... thank you....

[Satyr9]

Originally Posted by analingus

That dude should be bludgeoned to death!

Yeah, bludgeoning doesn't cost a god-damn thing!

Especially since there doesn't seem to be a shortage of "bludgeon technicians" in the prison who won't mind volunteering for such a thing.

[Stefanie]

I really don't care about how humane it is. We don't feel bad when we put our animals to sleep and we care about them. Thes people rape, kill, and torture people. I think they should kill them once they get sentenced to death. Or at least with in a reasonable time. Why should our tax dollars pay to keep them alive for 30 years before they are executed.

[CrowsEye]

Originally Posted by Stefanie

I really don't care about how humane it is. We don't feel bad when we put our animals to sleep and we care about them. Thes people rape, kill, and torture people. I think they should kill them once they get sentenced to death. Or at least with in a reasonable time. Why should our tax dollars pay to keep them alive for 30 years before they are executed.

Doesn't that make us as bad as they are though? I mean, yeah, these guys had problems, and did some fucked up things, but does that really mean we have to do something terrible to them? They're still just as human as we are. I've done some terrible things in my life, yeah...but does that mean I need to be punished cruelly?

I don't think so. I really agree execution should be humane. 5/6 of that word is 'HUMAN'...If we respond cruelly to cruel people, what does that make us?

[Flint_mint]

What, exactly, was wrong with the guillotine? Yeah, it was gross, and shocking...but that is to pretend that death itself is somehow not both gross and shocking. To it's credit, the guillotine is...

*Quick...
*Relatively painless...
*The comdemned don't see it coming (if face-down, of course)...
*and...IT DIDN'T MISS!

I'm not for the death penalty by any means, but if it must exist, let it be a method that will get the job done right, the first time. There are no questions of the "constitutionality of a second execution" with a guillotine. No missing the neck. No prolonged torture by chemicals or electricity that fail to snuff the victim out.

And by all means, bring it back into the public square...not hidden behind prison walls. Too much in this society is sanitized, to our detriment. Yeah, there's always that scene in a cowboy film (or Muse's video for "Knights of Cydonia"), where the associates of the condemned come to attempt a rescue. But surely Jesus Christ, John Brown, Guy Fawkes, and Marie Antoinette had many sympathizers in each of their respective crowds. That's what the soldiers were there for, in each case...to make sure the condemned died on the spot.

I know people will not agree with this post. I am actually against the death penalty. I think putting it back into the public square will both make the public realize there is a price to pay for lawlessness...and it could also galvanize the anti-death penalty faction into solidarity and increased action towards ending it.

[TheWhiteWolf]

The reason our govt. uses lethal injection, I believe, is because watching someone be electrocuted, hung or gassed is a stomach churning event. The gentler method of lethal injection isn't for the comfort of the criminal, it's for the comfort of the people who have to watch.

[TheWhiteWolf]

Ah, Flint_Mint I was seriously too slow with my previous post. I'm watching "World's Dumbest."

You have my full support for bringing back the guillotine and bringing it out from behind prison walls. Where's the voting booth for that one?

[Flint_mint]

Originally Posted by TheWhiteWolf

The reason our govt. uses lethal injection, I believe, is because watching someone be electrocuted, hung or gassed is a stomach churning event. The gentler method of lethal injection isn't for the comfort of the criminal, it's for the comfort of the people who have to watch.

The name of the band Spandau Ballet comes from the way the Nazi war criminals would flail about and kick while the hanging was transpiring. I agree, it's not pretty, by any means. Again, in movies, most of the time, a scene of death by hanging is very sanitized...over very quickly. I'm not saying I want to watch the full brutality of it...but I am saying that real life is rarely so clean and tidy.

I think the point of the guillotine was that before the revolution in France, the common person was beat to death on a wagon wheel, burned alive, or drawn and quartered (all terribly cruel and excruciating deaths); while the nobles, if they were EVER found guilty of an infraction requiring death, would get the more merciful beheading. The guillotine was about equality for all and a more merciful path to death...a revolutionary idea at the time.

I'm gonna stop here. Peace.

[T_Devil]

WHY must we over complicate things?

Takes Gun, Shoots Criminal in the head. "BANG* splat

I'm going to get something to eat, anyone want anything?

For the Record, I'm not a big fan of capital punishment. I believe there are far worse things than death. If they are dead, they cannot experience them. Death is their only way out, If that is their sentence, THEY'RE GETTING OFF LIGHT!

[Sexy Devil]

*sigh*

Just one more thing to make Ohio the most fucked up place I've ever lived in.

[TheWhiteWolf]

Originally Posted by T_Devil

For the Record, I'm not a big fan of capital punishment. I believe there are far worse things than death. If they are dead, they cannot experience them. Death is their only way out, If that is their sentence, THEY'RE GETTING OFF LIGHT!

Well said!

[FlyingDutchman]

Originally Posted by Flint_mint

What, exactly, was wrong with the guillotine? Yeah, it was gross, and shocking...but that is to pretend that death itself is somehow not both gross and shocking. To it's credit, the guillotine is...

*Quick...
*Relatively painless...
*The comdemned don't see it coming (if face-down, of course)...
*and...IT DIDN'T MISS!

I'm not for the death penalty by any means, but if it must exist, let it be a method that will get the job done right, the first time. There are no questions of the "constitutionality of a second execution" with a guillotine. No missing the neck. No prolonged torture by chemicals or electricity that fail to snuff the victim out.

And by all means, bring it back into the public square...not hidden behind prison walls. Too much in this society is sanitized, to our detriment. Yeah, there's always that scene in a cowboy film (or Muse's video for "Knights of Cydonia"), where the associates of the condemned come to attempt a rescue. But surely Jesus Christ, John Brown, Guy Fawkes, and Marie Antoinette had many sympathizers in each of their respective crowds. That's what the soldiers were there for, in each case...to make sure the condemned died on the spot.

I know people will not agree with this post. I am actually against the death penalty. I think putting it back into the public square will both make the public realize there is a price to pay for lawlessness...and it could also galvanize the anti-death penalty faction into solidarity and increased action towards ending it.

The "French" did it right.

[FlyingDutchman]

Everytime I read about someone being executed by the State, I ask myself.....is this right?
Who are "we" satisfying"?
Are we as bad as the criminal?
This does not deter others from committing awful crimes.