Sheer acceptance is what would be appropriate to call Brooms behavior on the day before the execution. Death row inmates often eat lavish meals as their last dinner and would meet their family members and loved ones before being executed. It was different for Romell Broom. He ate the usual meal prepared for all the inmates at Lucasville prison. He tried to call his father but was unsuccessful and although the visitors were allowed till the evening before the execution; no one visited him. Julie Walburn, director of communications for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction regarded him as very calm and co-operative on the day of execution. It was as if he has fully accepted, what was his lot.
He was informed on the day before the execution that Gov. Ted Strickland has declined his request for clemency. A mental health examination was also performed at his arrival in Lucasville – he was found fit.
He was convicted of raping and then murdering Tyrna – a ninth grade student at Shaw High School in East Cleveland. Tyrna was returning from a football game on Friday night on Sept 21, 1984 when she was abducted on a knife point. She was raped and murdered; her body was later found in Forest Hill Park. The semen in Tyrna’s body matched the Rommel Broom’s DNA.
Broom’s attorneys have maintained that DNA test was inconclusive. Appeals for Retrial were pending at the time of Broom’s execution as his lawyers wanted to produced hitherto unproduced Police records but the judge ruled that the records should have been produced immediately after the first petition.
Tyrna’s mother and aunt have been expected to be present at the execution scene whereas Broom wanted nobody to be a witness.
Romell Broom
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