Dying in Vein - Newsweek.com
Newsweek asks the question "Is subjecting an inmate to a failed execution cruel and unusual punishment?" That answer jsut might depend on who you ask.
On September 15 an Ohio execution team spent over 2 hours attempting to insert the intravenous catheter to administer a lethal combination of drugs to condemned killer Romell Broom, but without avail. According to the article "Technicians were able to locate several veins, but none of those veins were strong enough to administer the injection."
This failed attempt may have gotten Broom off the hook.
With the execution rescheduled for September 22, a Federal judge issued a temporary restraining order that will prevent the second execution attempt from taking place. Now the execution cannot proceed unless the state or the victim's family files a motion with the Ohio Supreme Court.
The question posed by Newsweek, of course, depends on who you ask. According to Broom's attorney It was a form of torture that exposed Broom to the prospect of a slow, lingering death, not the quick and painless one he was promised and to which he is constitutionally entitled if he is going to be executed by the State."
Death Penalty advocates have a different answer, however. According to prison officials "Our director said the hardest conversation was telling [the victim's] mother and father they had to stop the execution, because the family was searching for closure..."