Ohio death row inmate denied stay

[March 19, 2010]  COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A man who raped and stabbed to death a 14-year-old girl did not expect any visitors in the hours before his Tuesday execution, and no family or friends planned to watch him die.

Romell Broom was to be executed at 10 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. He was convicted of killing Tryna Middleton after abducting her at knifepoint on Sept. 21, 1984, as she walked home from a Friday night football game with two friends.

Ohio has executed 32 men since the state began putting people to death again in 1999. Broom's execution would be the second in less than a month.

A U.S. District Court refused to halt the execution Monday, the same day Gov. Ted Strickland denied clemency. Broom's attorney filed an appeal of the court decision with a federal appeals court; a separate appeal was denied Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 53-year-old Broom has sought a court hearing to consider whether investigators shielded records at his trial. He says the records could have changed the trial's outcome.

The execution was still scheduled to go ahead, even with the appeal pending before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, prisons department spokeswoman Julie Walburn said Tuesday.

Walburn said Tryna Middleton's mother, Bessye Middleton, and an aunt planned to witness the execution on her behalf.

Broom was calm and cooperative and appeared to accept his fate, Walburn said.

A medical evaluation Monday determined that veins in his right arm appear accessible, while those in his left arm are not as visible, she said.

"I imagine he's on pins and needles, and pretty much scared," his lawyer Tim Sweeney said Monday.

Broom did not request a special meal and was served the same dinner Monday as the general prison population: stir-fried turkey, rice, green beans, greens, pears, bread and cherry-flavored drink. He finished eating as he spoke with one of his attorneys, leaving green beans and greens uneaten.

He was allowed contact visits with family, but told prison staff that he did not expect any visitors. He spoke by phone Monday evening with a sister and brother.

Broom had not requested a spiritual adviser, and no one planned to witness the execution on his behalf, Walburn said.

[Associated Press; By JoANNE VIVIANO]

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