Romell Broom passed away on December 28, 2020, while on Ohio’s death row. He died from what officials believe was COVID-19. He was 64 years old and had been waiting for his execution for over 30 years. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said his death was likely related to the virus, but they were still waiting for the final death certificate to confirm it.
Back in 1985, Broom was found guilty of kidnapping, raping, and killing a 14-year-old girl named Tryna Middleton in East Cleveland, as per Death Penalty Info. The crime happened on September 21, 1984, he grabbed her and forced her into his car while holding a knife. Her body was found just hours later. Police caught Broom three months after that when he tried to kidnap an 11-year-old girl named Melinda Grissom. Her mother stopped him, and people nearby wrote down his car’s license plate number.
Ohio tried to execute Broom on September 15, 2009. The prison team worked for more than two hours trying to put an IV needle into his body. Court papers say the team kept pulling the needles out and putting them back in at different angles to try to find a good vein. One time, they missed the vein completely and hit his bone. When they finally got a needle into a vein, it stopped working when they tried to push saline through it. Broom started crying. The governor finally stopped the execution and gave him one more week to live.
The court’s decision was pretty controversial
Broom said the state should not be allowed to try executing him a second time. He argued it would be cruel and also against the law that says you cannot punish someone twice for the same crime. In March 2016, Ohio’s top court said 4-3 that the state could go ahead and try again…