Ohio inmate loses appeal to block 2nd attempt at execution

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction shows death row inmate Romell Broom, whose 2009 botched execution was called off after two hours. The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a condemned Ohio killer who said the state should not get a second chance to put him to death after he survived a botched execution. The justices did not comment Monday, Dec. 12, 2016, in letting stand the Ohio Supreme Court ruling against inmate Broom. (Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction via AP, File) FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction shows death row inmate Romell Broom, whose 2009 botched execution was called off after two hours. The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a condemned Ohio killer who said the state should not get a second chance to put him to death after he survived a botched execution. The justices did not comment Monday, Dec. 12, 2016, in letting stand the Ohio Supreme Court ruling against inmate Broom. (Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction via AP, File)

By Associated Press December 12, 2016 3 min read

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by a condemned killer whose 2009 execution was called off after two hours during which he cried in pain while receiving 18 needle sticks.

The court’s 6-2 ruling denies death row inmate Romell Broom the opportunity to argue that giving the state prisons agency a second chance to execute him would amount to cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy.

Broom, 60, is only the second inmate to survive an execution in U.S. history and the only via lethal injection. In 1947, Louisiana electrocuted 18-year-old Willie Francis by electric chair a year after an improperly prepared electric chair failed to work. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow the second execution to proceed, rejecting double jeopardy arguments.

Broom was sentenced to die for raping and killing 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland in 1984 as she walked home from a football game with two friends.

Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan said they would have granted Broom’s appeal, with Breyer saying the execution attempt took place under “especially cruel and unusual circumstances.”