![]() ![]() I assumed everyone on it had received competent legal representation and a fair trial. I thought it was a temporary holding cell for a few weeks or months prior to execution. ![]() While being anti-death penalty, I still made various assumptions about Death Row. The cycle of violence was further promoted by politicians cynically amassing votes by promising more executions - supposedly to end a culture of violence. It seemed shocking - and bizarre - that a civilized country could be corrupt or naïve enough to preach that murder is wrong and then advocate murdering prison inmates. Other Death Row prisoners had changed their lives and their thinking, as people often do, given time, but still had not been awarded parole or clemency or a life sentence instead of death. Some people had been proved innocent, after execution. It had been abolished decades ago in Britain, and in many States in the USA, as a barbaric, morally indefensible practice which had clearly not solved the crime problem. When I first volunteered to write to Death Row prisoners, I knew very little about the death penalty in the United States. Rick Halperin, former Chair, Amnesty International USA SURVIVOR ON DEATH ROW Romell Broom with Clare Nonhebel The inherent flaws of the capital punishment system are again exposed in all their horror as we are left to ponder how many other individuals will have to go through this nightmare. The Romell Broom case is yet another example of why the United States should abolish the death penalty immediately. Bad forensics, dodgy DNA, awful lawyers, render this a must-read." " A horrifying story embracing all the evils of the death penalty. Survivor on Death Row One Man’s Life by Romell Broom with Clare Nonhebel Smashwords edition ![]() Bad forensics, dodgy dna, awful lawyers, render this a must-read.” (Jon Snow, Channel 4 News, UK) Read more “A horrifying story embracing all the evils of the death penalty. The inherent flaws of the capital punishment system are again exposed in all their horror as we are left to ponder how many other individuals will have to go through this nightmare." (Rick Halperin, former Chair, Amnesty International USA) "The Romell Broom case is yet another example of why the United States should abolish the death penalty immediately. Having survived a two-hour execution attempt in 2009 he is still asking, ‘Will anybody listen to the truth?’ When you find two dna results in your files, both in your name, only one of which is yours - and the other one matches the crime?Įxecution survivor Romell Broom, who has now spent three decades on Ohio’s Death Row, tells his own story: a ‘throwaway’ boy from a disadvantaged background, hastily convicted for a crime he has always protested he didn’t do. When ‘I didn’t do it’ doesn’t count as a defence in court? When the judge who appointed your defense attorneys won’t let you change them, even though they seem to be working against you? When, even after a grisly failed execution attempt, the court refuses a case review? How do you prove your innocence when you live on Death Row? 30 years on Death Row, 1 failed execution, 2 non-matching dna profiles, no lawyer. ![]()
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