Gov. Ted Strickland has delayed an execution after the Ohio execution team had problems finding the inmate's veins.
Strickland ordered a week-long reprieve Tuesday afternoon after executioners struggled for about two hours to locate suitable veins for inserting IVs into 53-year-old Romell Broom.
The team began working on Broom, in a holding cell 17 steps from the execution chamber, shortly after 2 p.m. No Ohio governor has issued a similar last-minute reprieve since the state resumed executions in 1999.
Broom raped and stabbed to death a 14-year-old girl in 1984 after abducting her at knifepoint as she walked home from a Friday night football game with two friends. (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)