COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday delayed three more executions, again citing the state’s difficulty in obtaining execution drugs. The governor already had delayed all executions in 2019 and three more in January.
The three latest executions to be delayed:
– Romell Broom, whose execution date was moved from June 17, 2020, to March 16, 2022
–James Gelen Hanna, whose execution date was moved from July 16, 2020, to May 18, 2022
– Douglas Coley, whose execution date was moved from Aug. 12, 2020, to July 20, 2022
“Governor DeWine is issuing these reprieves due to ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), pursuant to DRC protocol, without endangering other Ohioans,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
As an incoming governor in early 2019, DeWine delayed his first execution after a federal judge sitting in Dayton compared Ohio’s execution method to torture. More were delayed after The Dispatch reported on methods state officials were using to obscure the sources of execution drugs in the face of strong objections by manufacturers to the use of their products in the Ohio death chamber.
Among death row inmates who’ve gotten reprieves, Broom is a special case. He was first strapped to a gurney in the death chamber in 2009. His execution was called off after 18 needle sticks during which prison workers were unable to insert needles that would carry the drugs into his veins.
Broom, 63, sued to get off of death row on the grounds that trying to again kill him would amount to double jeopardy. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 rejected that argument in a 5-4 decision.
Broom was sentenced to die for raping and killing 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland in 1984 as she walked home from a football game with two friends.
———
©2020 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio)
Visit The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) at www.dispatch.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.