Double-dealing death

Ohio prisoner Romell Broom, whose execution was halted in September 2009 after a two-hour ordeal during which 'death technicians' made 18 failed attempts to inject into a vein, has now spent 27 years living on Death Row.

That means that Romell, now 54, has spent half his life locked in a cage, not allowed to work, awaiting death any day.

Lawyers are arguing that two execution attempts on one man would be unconstitutional and unusually cruel. So far, the powers-that-be are not listening, or don't choose to let a bit of unusual cruelty bother them.

Romell Broom grew up as the eldest of 9 children in a poor neighbourhood where the only ambition for black kids, he says, was to escape poverty and the only option for doing so was to get involved in the 'night life' and become a pimp. Through the older generation of his family, he was introduced to this environment from the age of 12 though, mercifully, he didn't get drawn into becoming a pimp himself.

Convicted for a violent crime in 1984 and locked away under the tightest security ever since, this man is now hardly a threat to society. There seems no possible reason to kill him, other than to assure votes for pro-death politicians and satisfy a violent thirst for violent revenge for acts of violence – a pitiful double standard that means nobody wins and the cycle of violence continues.

Our society, which rightly abhors and condemns heartless crime, is still focusing attention on individuals who commit acts of violence, labelling them asmonsters.

Claiming to solve the problem of violence by rendering these individuals defenceless, strapping them down then cold-bloodedly killing them with lethal chemicals, conveys a monstrous double standard.

It is also naive – a childish a solution to crime, like trying to solve a fear of the dark by shouting at monsters under the bed rather than turning the light on.

Instead of condoning a criminal justice system which selects certain perpetrators of openly violent acts to be condemned as the Scary Monsters, and zapping them, we need to turn the spotlight on factors that cause children to grow up believing that evil is good and that violence, ambition and greed are prerequisites for success.

We need to help young people identify clearly which ways of thinking and living are sick and which are healthy. Undoubtedly, there are some very sick-minded people. Many of them support the death penalty. Many see themselves as good people, because society accepts them and because they are successful.

But to begin to end the cycle of violence that runs through every human heart and every strand of society, we need to stop silencing the real experts on the causes of violence and start listening to them.

People like Romell Broom, for instance.