Liberal U.S. justice questions death penalty as court spurns cases

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals by a convicted murderer who said he should not be executed because Ohio tried unsuccessfully to put him to death once before and three other death row inmates, putting a spotlight again on divisions among the eight justices over capital punishment. The justices spurned the request by Romell Broom as well as appeals by convicted murders Henry Sireci in Florida, James Tyler in Louisiana and Sammie Stokes in South Carolina. The court let stand a March ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court that the state could try to execute Broom, convicted of raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl named Tryna Middleton in 1984, a second time.