science

Romell Broom

Romell Broom is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Romell Broom rather than just read about it. In short: Romell Broom (June 4, 1956 – December 28, 2020) was an American death row inmate who was convicted of murder, kidnapping and rape. He was sentenced to death for the 1984 murder of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton.

Key takeaways

Romell Broom belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Romell Broom to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Romell Broom from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Romell Broom (June 4, 1956 – December 28, 2020) was an American death row inmate who was convicted of murder, kidnapping and rape. He was sentenced to death for the 1984 murder of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton. Broom was scheduled to be executed on September 15, 2009, but after executioners failed to locate a vein, he was granted a reprieve. A second execution attempt was scheduled for June 2020, which was delayed until March 2022. Broom died from COVID-19 in prison before the sentence could be carried out.

Early life Broom was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and moved to Ohio with his mother when he was five years old.

Crimes Broom committed numerous non-violent crimes as a juvenile, for which he was repeatedly committed to the Ohio Youth Commission. On October 25, 1974, Broom and another person entered a man's car, robbed him at gunpoint, and forced him out. On January 11, 1975, he raped a 12-year-old girl who was babysitting his niece. On March 15, 1975, he committed another armed robbery with an accomplice. Broom later pleaded guilty to rape, aggravated robbery, and robbery, and was sentenced to 7 to 25 years in prison. His codefendant in the robberies was acquitted. Broom was paroled on May 11, 1984. Decades later, a woman named Vickie Varner claimed that Broom raped and threatened to kill her in 1975, when she was 13 years old. On September 18, 1984, Broom attempted to abduct 12-year-old Venita McKenney, but was interrupted by two neighbors and fled. On September 21, 1984, Broom abducted, raped, and murdered 14-year-old Tryna Middleton as she was walking home with two of her friends from a football game in East Cleveland, Ohio. On December 6, 1984, Broom physically assaulted and abducted 11-year-old Melinda Grissom. Grissom's younger sister witnessed the attack. After Broom threw Grissom into his car, her mother interrupted them and held onto the car while screaming for help. The icy road made it harder for Broom to drive, allowing Grissom's mother to hang on. Eventually, Grissom was able to escape; however, two young men were able to write the license plate number of the car. Broom was arrested later that day. He was charged with numerous crimes, including aggravated murder. Broom offered to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of 30 years to life, but his offer was rejected. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. In 2003, Broom accepted an offer from the state of Ohio for a DNA test to prove his innocence—however, the test results failed to exonerate him. The clemency hearing concluded that "the DNA report does not indicate an exact match ... Otherwise stated, eight or nine other black males in the country would have the same profile."

Aborted execution Broom was scheduled to be executed on September 15, 2009. However, the executioners tried for two hours to maintain an IV line through which they could inject the lethal drugs, before Ohio Governor Ted Strickland issued a one-week reprieve. His lawyers argued that his first execution attempt was cruel and unusual punishment, and that executing him would mean that his evidence would be "irretrievably lost" for their broader lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection procedure. U.S. District Court Judge Gregory L. Frost scheduled a November 30, 2009, hearing on the issues. Amnesty International started a campaign to inform the public about the failure of the execution attempt. There is also a documentary on this case, The Second Execution of Romell Broom by Michael Verhoeven, and Broom wrote his own story in the e-book Survivor on Death Row. In March 2016, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Broom and ruled that the state could again try to execute him. In August 2016, Broom asked the Supreme Court of the United States to halt a second execution, with his lawyers arguing that another execution attempt would be cruel and unusual punishment and would violate double jeopardy protections under the 5th and 14th amendments to the U.S. constitution. On December 12, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to give Broom a hearing on his appeal. On May 19, 2017, the Ohio Supreme Court scheduled an execution date for Broom, on June 17, 2020. On April 14, 2020, Broom's execution was delayed to March 16, 2022.

Death Broom died from suspected COVID-19 complications at Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, on December 28, 2020, at age 64, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ohio.

See also Doyle Hamm Capital punishment in Ohio Execution of Clayton Lockett List of longest prison sentences served List of botched executions

References

External links Broom's entry on the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Romell Broom: a different man Archived January 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Romell Broom

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Romell Broom claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Romell Broom before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Romell Broom ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Romell Broom

In research: Romell Broom appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Romell Broom in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Romell Broom is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1956 births, 1984 murders in the United States, 2020 deaths, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Romell Broom outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Romell Broom in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Romell Broom means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Romell Broom out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Romell Broom in simple terms?

Why does Romell Broom matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Romell Broom?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Romell Broom.