Romell Broom is an American man convicted of murder, kidnapping, and rape. He was convicted in 1984 of abducting and killing Tryna Middleton, age 14, who was walking home from a football game in East Cleveland, Ohio. In 2003, Broom accepted an offer from the state of Ohio for a DNA test to prove his innocence—however, the test results failed to exonerate him. The clemency hearing concluded that "the DNA report does not indicate an exact match, but does indicate that the likelihood of Broom being the donor is 1 in 2.3 million. Otherwise stated, eight or nine other black males in the country would have the same profile." Broom has repeatedly requested independent DNA retesting and a change of legal team. Broom also has convictions for robbery, aggravated robbery and four counts of kidnapping a male child. He was also convicted in a separate incidence of raping a female child.
Aborted execution
Broom was scheduled to be executed on September 15, 2009. However, the executioners tried for two hours to maintain an IV line through which they could inject the lethal drugs, before Ohio GovernorTed Strickland issued a one-week reprieve. Broom's lawyers argued that his first execution attempt was cruel and unusual punishment, and that executing him would mean that his evidence would be "irretrievably lost" for their broader lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ohio’s lethal injection procedure. U.S. District Court Judge Gregory L. Frost scheduled a November 30, 2009, hearing on the issues. Amnesty International started a campaign to inform the public about the failure of the execution attempt. There is also a documentary on this case, The Second Execution of Romell Broom by Michael Verhoeven, and Broom himself has written his own story in the e-book Survivor on Death Row. In March 2016, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Broom and ruled that the state can again try to execute him. In August 2016, Broom asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a second execution, with his lawyers arguing that another execution attempt would be cruel and unusual punishment and would violate double jeopardy protections under the 5th and 14th amendments to the U.S. constitution. On December 12, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to give Broom a hearing on his appeal. On May 19, 2017, the Ohio Supreme Court scheduled an execution date for Broom, on June 17, 2020. On April 14, 2020, Broom's execution was delayed to March 16, 2022.
