Romell Broom
Photograph of Romell Broom in 2018, courtesy of Clare Nonhebel.
In Memoriam - Romell Broom - Until I die
By Clare Nonhebel
Romell Broom was on Ohio Death Row for 35 years, appealing for a retrial and for lawyers to present his innocence claim.
His book “Survivor on Death Row” (published on Amazon) opened many people’s eyes to the reality of the death penalty and of the human lives behind it, and included his account of the horrific two-hour execution attempt he survived in 2009.
Following the botched execution, the State set another date to execute him, postponed till 2022 by Ohio governor Mike de Wine.
In 2020 Romell was offered a private deal by the court to be taken off Death Row if he dropped his petition, but persisted in claiming his innocence and the right to a new trial.
He contracted Covid and died in hospital on December 28, 2020.
This is a poem Romell wrote about the 2009 attempt to execute him by lethal injection.
Until I die
By Romell Broom
The stress was so bad I attempted to help them end my life.
I was ready to die, because of the trauma and pain,
knowing that these people was not going to stop
until I die.
I was pricked more than 18 times, until I die.
The pricks was painful but it became worse when they could not find a vein,
until I die.
They would stay inside my vein in my arm in the same hole,
poking around for blood, never pulling the needle out,
until I die.
It was terrifying being around people who were just trying to kill me.
They were acting as if nothing had happened
and I was feeling as if I had to act the same way,
until I die.
Afraid that they was going to do something to cause my death,
until I die.
I had to hold my emotions in, because I would have been out of control
and I did not want to give them reason to put their hands on me
until I die.
Hold everything that I was feeling inside.
To this day I can’t understand
the reason for what happened to me.
Do I have a life, until I die?
Things are very difficult, I have no peace within,
no truth from the people around me.
I must get away, until I die.
When traveling to the heart of darkness, terror is not an emotion,
it's a “destination.”
Until we die.
From Mourning Our Losses:
Romell Broom was a keen and dedicated learner. “I like art, I do some drawing, like music - I love music - and I play the guitar,” he wrote in 2013 in the book, Survivor on Death Row, co-authored with Clare Nonhebel. “I have only been playing guitar for six years, since I was 47, and I can play pretty good but I still can’t do all the things I would like to do. It’s like that with God too - there is so much to learn. I am still learning about God, and about the things that the guitar can do.“ Romell loved the Blues, called it “his music,” but also had a passion for old Soul and Rock’n’Roll, especially of the late ’60s and ’70s.
Playing the guitar was just one of the skills and talents he tried to master over the years. Clare, a writer and prison penfriend, noted in their book that he “learned skills in various trades - printing, hairdressing, sewing and others - from fellow [incarcerated people] in prison, and learned welding after he came out.” When Romell sent draft entries for the book, Clare was astounded by how quickly he absorbed her style prompts. His writing began to pour out of him, producing deep, insightful, and artful reflections on his life and learning. “I suddenly felt sad, reading it,” Clare wrote, “because it occurred to me that maybe he had always been good at learning.”
Born on June 4th, 1956 in Muskegon, Michigan, Romell grew up in Ohio, where he moved with his mother when he was about five years old. He tragically died on December 28, 2020 of COVID-related conditions at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. He was moved there for treatment from the Chillicothe Correctional Institution, also in Ohio. He was 64.
Chillicothe had a duty of care to prevent any harm to incarcerated individuals living in the facility. Romell’s tragic death demonstrates its failure to honor that commitment. For Romell, however, this was not his first encounter with the state’s capacity to kill: in 2009, in a case that garnered international headlines, the state of Ohio attempted to execute Romell by lethal injection - and failed. For more than two hours, Romell was injected all over his body by prison officials, an experience that was so painful and traumatic that he tried to help the execution team in order to bring about an end to his suffering. Believing God had saved his life strengthened Romell’s sense of urgency to communicate not only his own story but the general situation of people incarcerated on Death Row, as well as the intricacies and failings of a judicial system that consigns people to die. Romell wrote about this event, as well as his life, in the book he wrote with Clare.
Romell was the eldest in a family of ten children and grew up “in a family, culture and neighbourhood acquainted with poverty and violence. The innocence of childhood ended at a tender age.” Romell nevertheless speaks poignantly of his thirst for learning and mastery, despite a childhood that sadly offered little opportunity for it. “How does a person begin to write a book? I always wanted to do something like that but I am not a good speller or very smart. Like the guitar it takes a lot of practice, but it will come if you keep at it.”
Romell’s attorneys Timothy Sweeney and Adele Shank shared in a statement after his death that he survived the 2009 execution “only to live with the ever-increasing fear and distress that the same process would be used on him at his next execution date.” They added: “Let his passing in this way, and not in the execution chamber, be the final word on whether a second attempt should ever have been considered.” We mourn Romell’s loss and the endless opportunities to learn he was denied, and we stand with those grieving his death.
This memorial was written by MOL team member Cecile Ramin with information from reporting by Danielle Hayes of UPI, Andrew Welsh-Huggins of the Associated Press and the book, Survivor on Death Row, by Romell Broom and Clare Nonhebel. Survivor on Death Row can be accessed on Apple Books, Amazon, and more.