By Scott Tibbs, September 23, 2009
And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies? -- Ezekiel 13:19
In 1984, Romell Broom kidnapped a 14 year old girl named Tryna Middleton at knifepoint. He brutally raped and sodomized her, and then stabbed her multiple times, killing her. Now, 25 years after his crimes, the state of Ohio finally attempted to make the world a better place by killing Broom by lethal injection. The attempt failed, as technicians were unable to find a vein to use to pump the poison into Broom's body.
Here's what is amazing. The New York Times reported that "it is doctors who are best qualified to carry out executions by lethal injection, and yet, as medical organizations have periodically reminded them, their doing so is ethically proscribed." Think about that for a minute.
We live in a nation where a "medical" procedure is used to intentionally terminate the lives of 1.2 million unborn children every year. We live in a nation where a newborn baby with Down Syndrome was murdered by hospital staff right here in Bloomington, Indiana, in one of the most obscene examples of cruelty I've ever seen. And yet, the very same medical profession that is swimming in the blood of the innocent children finds it "unethical" to put down a monster who raped, sodomized and murdered a 14 year old girl after our justice system has ordered him to be put to death.
I don't deny that a failed IV can be painful. I went to IU Medical center on regular intervals between 1997 and 2002 for checkups after surviving cancer. Blood tests and IV's are not fun. In 2005, I had to have a physical as part of an employment screening process and three attempts to draw blood failed, so I had to go back the next day. But we're not talking about torturing someone here. The idea that executing a monster who raped, sodomized and murdered a 14 year old girl should be a clinical procedure with no pain, because that would be "cruel" is simply obscene.
Romell Broom deserves to die. He didn't give a damn about whether it was "cruel" to rape and sodomize a 14 year old girl before stabbing her to death. I certainly don't support torturing prisoners and I am convinced that the prohibition against "cruel and unusual" punishments is necessary to prevent abuse. There is a difference between torture and a prisoner experiencing reasonable pain while he is being executed. It is silly to expect that killing someone will or should be done without causing pain to the person being put to death.
