Free Republic

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A condemned Ohio killer who survived a 2009 botched execution is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to declare that a second attempt to put him to death would be unconstitutional. Lawyers for death row inmate Romell Broom argue that giving the state prisons agency a second chance would amount to cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy. A divided Ohio Supreme Court rejected Broom's arguments in March. Broom's attorneys appealed that ruling earlier this month to the U.S. Supreme Court and filed notice of that appeal on Monday with the state court. The state stopped Broom's execution...

Columbus, Ohio (AP) -- A federal judge has delayed the October execution of a death row inmate who joined a lawsuit challenging lethal injection as unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. Romell Broom, who raped and stabbed to death a 14-year-old girl, is one of 15 Ohio inmates claiming the procedure may cause prisoners to suffer. U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost on Sept. 5 ordered Broom's Oct. 18 execution halted while the lawsuit proceeds. Another death row inmate asked Frost on Friday for permission to join the lawsuit. Michael Turner, 48, killed his estranged wife and her boyfriend at her apartment...