Romell Broom
22
MENTIONS
8
EPISODES
8
PODCASTS
Search complete. 22 mentions across 8 episodes found for "Romell Broom".
Oct 16, 2026
Chip DeBlockHOST
Um, and then they're g- and then they were gonna go with cruel and unusual punishment.
Chip DeBlockHOST
Um, in an Ohio case from 2009, there was a death row inmate named Romell Broom, like the sweeping broom.
Chip DeBlockHOST
He challenged a second execution attempt after executioners failed to establish an IV line.
Chip DeBlockHOST
The Ohio Supreme Court allowed the state to proceed because the lethal drugs never actually entered his bloodstream.
Devin StoneHOST
The Sixth Circuit, which covers Tennessee, confronted it in Broome v. Shu.
Devin StoneHOST
Ohio had tried to execute Romell Broome in 2009, but execution personnel spent roughly two hours unsuccessfully trying to establish an IV before giving up.
Devin StoneHOST
Broome argued that a second attempt would violate double jeopardy and the Eighth Amendment.
Devin StoneHOST
The Sixth Circuit rejected his federal habeas challenge.
Austin SaratGUEST
The state of Tennessee was well-informed about the risk.
Austin SaratGUEST
The other relevant precedent, I think, and others on the panel may, may disagree with this, the other relevant precedent happened in Ohio in the case of Romell Broom.
Austin SaratGUEST
Romell Broom, they tried to execute him.
Austin SaratGUEST
They couldn't find the vein.
Austin SaratGUEST
They went on and on and on, and it was horrible for him.
Jonathan GronerGUEST
in the 1940s where someone was put in an electric chair and it blew a fuse, and that case was litigated, and it was ruled that he could be executed again, although my understanding that there was some, some sort of backroom dealing that the governor was supposed to give him clemency, which actually didn't happen.
Jonathan GronerGUEST
So I examined Romell Broom, who also had a failed execution in Ohio.
Jonathan GronerGUEST
He was stuck 18 times, but to be clear, he never received any drug.
Jonathan GronerGUEST
His case was working its way through the court system with this very question that you're asking, can someone be executed twice? But before it reached its conclusion, he died of COVID, um-
Jo InglesHOST
He recalled a couple of botched attempts at execution.
Andrew Welsh-HugginsSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Romell Broom, uh, back in, um, 2009, um, you know, the execution team spent almost two hours trying to find a usable vein.
Andrew Welsh-HugginsSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
They made 18, uh, attempts, uh, with needles, um, in his arms and his legs, uh, before that execution was halted.
Andrew Welsh-HugginsSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Um, Alva Campbell, uh, who, um, was, uh, sentenced to death for a murder in Franklin County, um, I actually witnessed that.
Kelsey SherenGUEST
Well, I mean, I think the difference is-
Natali MorrisHOST
Because I know, maybe you remember the case of, um, Romell Broom was his name, right? The, the, um-
Kelsey SherenGUEST
I know who-
Natali MorrisHOST
It was in Ohio-
26 MINS LATER
Natali MorrisHOST
So we had reporters watching Christa Pike die.
Natali MorrisHOST
And so, you know, when this happens, we know that it's excruciating.
Natali MorrisHOST
Uh, the man in Ohio in 2009 who, his name always escapes me, uh, uh, who died, end of- ended up dying of COVID, it's, uh, Ro- Romell Broom.
Natali MorrisHOST
And so it's, it's incredibly hard on our collective psyche to take this because we're watching this in such a slow, methodical way.
Chris QuinnHOST
We have some more coming now.
Chris QuinnHOST
The botched execution of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike bears some similarities to one of Ohio's most notorious execution failures, the 2009 attempt to put Romell Broom to death.
Chris QuinnHOST
In that case, a 14-year-old named Trina Middleton was kidnapped and killed in September 1984.
Chris QuinnHOST
She was walking home from a high school football game.
Chris QuinnHOST
What happened now in Tennessee? Will there be similarities, Leila?
Leila AtassiHOST
Well, yeah, I, I agree.
Leila AtassiHOST
The Romell Broom case really shows just how long a failed execution can leave a family's, or a victim's family waiting for a sentence that, that was never ultimately carried out.
Leila AtassiHOST
Ohio tried to execute Broom in 2009, uh, for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of 14-year-old Trina.
Kelly EvansHOST
So, for context, in 1946, a Louisiana teenager named Willie Francis survived the electric chair, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state could try again, so they did the following year.
Kelly EvansHOST
In 2009, Ohio couldn't find a vein on a man named Romell Broom after about two hours of trying, and he spent the rest of his life fighting a second attempt.
Kelly EvansHOST
He ultimately died in prison in 2020 before they ever tried again.
Kelly EvansHOST
But in both of those cases, and in Tony Carruthers' case here in Tennessee back in May, the person never actually got the full dose of the drugs.