Guards keeping close watch on condemned Ohio inmate after unprecedented execution delay

Guards watch Ohio inmate after execution delay

LUCASVILLE, Ohio — A condemned inmate whose execution was stopped because of problems finding a usable vein will remain at the maximum security prison where death row inmates usually are held for a day before being put to death.

Ohio prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn says inmate Romell Broom has been placed in a cell in the infirmary at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville and will remain there over the next week.

Walburn says Broom is under constant observation.

Death row inmates are housed in a Youngstown prison and executed in the death chamber at Lucasville. There’s no precedent for housing an inmate whose execution didn’t work.

Gov. Ted Strickland stopped Broom’s execution Tuesday after about two hours as executioners struggled unsuccessfully to find a vein strong enough to deliver a three-drug lethal injection.