Fundamentally Flawed!!!
Romell Broom
Romell Broom, 53 year old death row inmate, began to help the executioners do their job. He scuffled to put pressure on the left side of his body while he slid the rubber tubing up his left arm. They attempted to stick him with a needle, it didn’t hold. Romell continued by moving his arm in a vertical motion, while he flexed and clinched his fist tight into a ball, as the doctors (AKA grim reapers AKA the execution team), once again stuck him with a needle while searching for a vein, and once again it didn’t hold. Finally, after two hours of this struggle, the execution team was able to find a vein, but it literally collapsed when the technicians attempted to insert saline fluid.
If you can’t tell by now, I am already against the death penalty. And in my opinion this event, that occurred yesterday(September 16, 2009) should be considered cruel and unusual punishment.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio (where I worked this summer) called on state officials to immediately put a halt to executions, following the attempted execution of Romell Broom. The procedure was botched after the execution team failed to locate a viable vein after several hours of searching. Governor Strickland delayed Broom’s execution for one week in light of these problems.
This follows two other botched executions in Ohio beginning with Joseph L. Clark in May 2006 and Christopher Newton in May 2007. Both of these executions were eventually completed despite officials struggling to find viable veins on the men.
ACLU of Ohio Staff Counsel Carrie Davis said, “Governor Strickland must not allow another execution to happen in Ohio . The system used to carry out executions has been shown to be faulty and dangerous. If the state is going to take a person’s life, they must ensure that it is done as humanely as possible. With three botched executions in as many years, it’s clear that the state must stop and review the system entirely before another person is put to death,”
Hopefully someone will get the picture and realize that state sponsored killing is not the best way to go. It is actually more expensive to kill a person with lethal injection, than it is to sentence an individual with life in prison and it is still racially unequal. Furthermore, with the advancement of technology and DNA samples, individuals that were killed on death row had later been found innocent of the crime. MEANING THE STATE HAS KILLED INNOCENT PEOPLE. Well, keeping in mind the wars we have been involved in just within the last 50 years (and recent torturing episodes at guantanomo), it definitely is not the first time.
Ah! i wish that i had read this before i posted. Rommell Broom’s suffering motivated me to revisit my view on the death penalty in general and lethal injection specifically. My post is something that i wrote a couple years ago and it still saddens me that fewer people are calling for an examination of the death penalty. Nice post, thanks for sharing it!
Ah! i wish that i had read this before i posted. Rommell Broom’s suffering motivated me to revisit my view on the death penalty in general and lethal injection specifically. My post is something that i wrote a couple years ago and it still saddens me that fewer people are calling for an examination of the death penalty. Nice post, thanks for sharing it!
Naw, I dont think its a problem that we both wrote on the issue. Your post was really good also, and I like the youtube video that you added to it. I think the fact that your from Texas gives you automatic priority over the issue of Capital Punishment. Anytime a debate has come up on the issue, people always mention Texas. And the fact that Texas has banned the same drug used in lethal injections for the use of dogs and cats proves that this issue needs to be addressed a lot more.
As of right now, the ACLU of Ohio is still asking our members to call the governor and and ask him to put a ban on all capital punishment until further notice. Hopefully this will cause a butterfly effect, and people around the country will get the message.
Naw, I dont think its a problem that we both wrote on the issue. Your post was really good also, and I like the youtube video that you added to it. I think the fact that your from Texas gives you automatic priority over the issue of Capital Punishment. Anytime a debate has come up on the issue, people always mention Texas. And the fact that Texas has banned the same drug used in lethal injections for the use of dogs and cats proves that this issue needs to be addressed a lot more.
As of right now, the ACLU of Ohio is still asking our members to call the governor and and ask him to put a ban on all capital punishment until further notice. Hopefully this will cause a butterfly effect, and people around the country will get the message.
i’m not from or currently living in Ohio but this is something that i can unite on. Let me know if i can help your righteous cause!
i’m not from or currently living in Ohio but this is something that i can unite on. Let me know if i can help your righteous cause!
Hi Jonathan,
Thank you for providing me with this information. I, too, had not been made aware of this pressing issue.
I am deeply concerned about the capital punishment regime in this country as well. I think the implementation of the lethal injection is very much “cruel and unusual punishment.” More generally, I find the capitol punishment system as it is presently “cruel and unusal,” because of the statistical proven biases found in who is disproportionately sentenced to death. Although I agree that capitol punishment, as the system stands today, is problematic, I am reluctant to categorize the death penalty as absolutely wrong in every case.
Hi Jonathan,
Thank you for providing me with this information. I, too, had not been made aware of this pressing issue.
I am deeply concerned about the capital punishment regime in this country as well. I think the implementation of the lethal injection is very much “cruel and unusual punishment.” More generally, I find the capitol punishment system as it is presently “cruel and unusal,” because of the statistical proven biases found in who is disproportionately sentenced to death. Although I agree that capitol punishment, as the system stands today, is problematic, I am reluctant to categorize the death penalty as absolutely wrong in every case.
Thank you,
You have a habit of moving in the right direction and then your conservative views always sneak up on you(*Joking). I can definitely understand your hesitation to categorize the death penalty as absolutely wrong, but to me it is the issue of killing people inside of a flawed system. I have heard pro-capital punishment individuals argue that if someone kills thousands of people, for example, TImothy Mcveigh from the Oklahoma Bombings, in extreme situations like this, the death penalty should be used. My only problem with this is the same as what I wrote in the follow up blog. 1000 guilty men dead, is not worth the life of 1 innocent man. And our system is too flawed to take that chance.
Thank you,
You have a habit of moving in the right direction and then your conservative views always sneak up on you(*Joking). I can definitely understand your hesitation to categorize the death penalty as absolutely wrong, but to me it is the issue of killing people inside of a flawed system. I have heard pro-capital punishment individuals argue that if someone kills thousands of people, for example, TImothy Mcveigh from the Oklahoma Bombings, in extreme situations like this, the death penalty should be used. My only problem with this is the same as what I wrote in the follow up blog. 1000 guilty men dead, is not worth the life of 1 innocent man. And our system is too flawed to take that chance.
As it, the CAPITAL punishment system, stands, I agree wholeheartedly with you. I just want you to know this is a great post and it has me responding at this conference when i need to be paying attention.
You will pay for this…GREAT distraction…hahaha (I am on the clock and i have to present this information later).
Thanks for pointing that out to me (CAPITAL PUNISHMENT)…I should not be responding when I am tired.
As it, the CAPITAL punishment system, stands, I agree wholeheartedly with you. I just want you to know this is a great post and it has me responding at this conference when i need to be paying attention.
You will pay for this…GREAT distraction…hahaha (I am on the clock and i have to present this information later).
Thanks for pointing that out to me (CAPITAL PUNISHMENT)…I should not be responding when I am tired.