Question: Can a felon be executed if the first attempt fails? Ohio will re-execute a convicted rapist murderer next week after an unsuccessful two hour attempt to find a vein in the felon to insert a lethal injection. His lawyer claims that this was torture and he should not be executed. The only US case dealing with this issue was from 1946 in Louisiana when an electric chair failed. The US Supreme Court ruled that to execute a "...prisoner in the wake of a failed first attempt was constitutional" (name of case unknown at this time).
(Source: "Ohio to try again after execution effort fails" from the NY Times re-printed in The Virginian Pilot on 9/17/09)
Update: A federal judge has ordered a delay-of ten days- in the second attempt to execute this convicted murderer. Romelli Broom's lawyers say the failed attempt at letha injection amounted to "cruel and unusual punishment", a violation of the 8th Amendment. Lawyers for the state "consented to the request for a delay". (Source: "Ohio: 2nd execution attempt is halted" from wire reports in The Virginian Pilot on 9/19/09)
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