Romell Broom and the Barbarism of the Death Penalty
You want to know how barbaric the death penalty is?
Ask Romell Broom.
The convicted rapist and murderer was brought into the execution chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility on Tuesday.
But the executioners could not manage, over the course of two hours, to get the IVs in right so the lethal injections could do their dirty work.
They tried finding a vein in his arms. They tried finding a vein in his legs.
Broom himself assisted the executioners by sliding rubber tubing up his arm and flexing his hands.
To no avail.
They eventually found a vein they thought was suitable to the morbid task but it collapsed when the techies tried to insert some fluid.
That brought Broom to tears.
Finally, the prison director called off the botched murder attempt and Ohio Governor Ted Strickland gave Broom a one-week reprieve.
How ’bout commuting the sentence to life in prison without parole?
Broom has suffered enough already.
Dostoevsky once wrote that being sent to your execution but then surviving is one of the most hideous experiences you can have.
Yeah, being raped and murdered is more hideous. Much more.
But the state should not be in a sadism contest. And that’s what the death penalty is.
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Comments
High fives for you, Mr. Morris, because I could not agree more.
But Mr. Rothschild, yes, how dare the state of Ohio make a grown man suffer the immense pain of being stuck by a needle after being sentenced to death for raping and killing a 14-year-old defenseless girl. Excuse me while I grab my violin. Did you happen to look up how this teary old sack killed this young girl?
“It is ironic to hear a 53-year-old man and his attorney whine about being pricked with a needle when he is being executed for brutally raping and murdering a 14-year-old child by plunging a knife seven times into her chest,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason. “I am absolutely certain that it was Tryna Middleton that suffered from cruel and unusual punishment.”
I'm not sure anyone could be more right than Mr. Mason or could have spoken those words more eloquently.
Hell, I say we cut down on more costs and hire a firing squad or build up some gallows. If you want to talk barbarism, let's talk barbarism. But this, dear sir, is not even close.
Merriam-Webster defines barbarism as an idea, act, or expression that in form or use offends against contemporary standards of good taste or acceptability.
Well if Matt considers this lethal injection barbaric then so is trying to draw blood on an elderly patient whose veins are statistically harder to find due to age or someone trying to give blood who happens to be a little too dehydrated. Hm. Goodness, I think I'm beginning to see your point (please note the oozing sarcasm).
But we have to give Broom some sort of pep talk, right? I mean he even tried to help the technician administer the injection. He's so cooperative. Maybe this could be grounds to get him some serious parole and get him out into the real word! What county do you live in anyway, Mr. Rothschild? We should probably send him there.
All in all, Matthew, you are a silly, pathetic, babbling fool.