Most of you have probably heard by now about Ohio’s attempted execution of Romell Broom on Tuesday (articles can be found here and here), where Broom received a one-week reprieve from Gov. Ted Strickland after the execution team tried unsuccessfully for more than two hours to locate a vein. Similar problems occurred with the executions of Joseph Clark in 2006 (delayed for 90 minutes) and Christopher Newton in 2007 (delayed for almost 2 hours). Such difficulties prompted Ohio to amend its lethal injection protocol, in part to give execution teams as much time as needed to insert the IV. Broom’s execution is now slated for Sept. 22nd, but there seems to be an informal consensus that it will not proceed due to legal challenges (see Doug Berman’s opinion on the Sentencing Law and Policy Blog).
Under Ohio’s lethal injection procedure, the IV is inserted in the prisoner’s veins before the prisoner is moved to the lethal injection chamber, but these preparations are visible to execution witnesses–including victims’ family members and members of the press–on closed circuit monitors mounted in the witnessing room. Several family members of Broom’s victim, 14-year-old Tryna Middleton, including her mother, father and aunt, witnessed the execution team’s difficulty with finding a vein, and observed Broom’s reactions. At one point, Broom covered his face with his hands and cried; at another, he grimaced while the execution team tried to site the IV in a vein around his ankles.
In my research on the impact of Timothy McVeigh’s capital trial and execution upon victims’ family members and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing (for related articles, see here, here, and here), my participants frequently voiced frustration that McVeigh’s execution had been too peaceful, and that he had not appeared to suffer at all. That also appears to be a fairly common reaction among family members who give statements to the press after witnessing a lethal injection. However, Middleton’s family members experienced something quite different than the customary sanitized sight of an apparently peaceful death by lethal injection. I have been wondering how those victims’ family members who believe that they want to see the offender suffer would regard breakdowns in the execution process that could cause visible suffering to him, such as prolonged attempts to find veins. Is this the type of suffering that some family members would wish to be inflicted on an offender? Do family members find it difficult or in bad taste to witness such attempts? Do family members perceive that the sight of suffering is worth the delay in executing the offender? My guess is that, if Broom’s execution is postponed beyond September 22nd, that the answer to that question for Middleton’s family members will be a resounding “no.”
Posted by Jody Madeira on September 17, 2009 at 11:17 PM