The case of Ohio death row inmate Romell Broom remains one of the most extraordinary and controversial chapters in the history of capital punishment in the United States. More than a decade after surviving a botched execution that shocked the nation, Broom ultimately died in prison from complications believed to be related to COVID-19 before the state could carry out another execution.
Broom was sentenced to death for the 1984 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton in Cleveland, Ohio. After spending more than two decades on death row while exhausting his appeals, his execution was scheduled for September 15, 2009. Officials planned to execute him by lethal injection, the primary execution method used in Ohio at the time.
What followed became one of the most widely discussed failed executions in modern American history. Over the course of nearly two hours, the execution team repeatedly attempted to insert intravenous lines needed to administer the lethal drugs. Officials reportedly made 18 unsuccessful needle insertions into Broom’s arms, hands, legs, and ankles while he remained strapped to the execution table. At one point, a needle reportedly struck bone, and Broom cried out in pain as staff struggled to locate a suitable vein. Eventually, prison officials halted the procedure without administering the execution drugs.
The unprecedented incident immediately raised serious legal and ethical questions. Broom’s attorneys argued that forcing him to undergo another execution would violate constitutional protections against double jeopardy and cruel and unusual punishment. The case attracted national attention from legal scholars, civil rights organizations, and death penalty advocates, who viewed it as a landmark test of the limits of capital punishment in the United States.
