Romell Broom's former defense attorney asserts that the prosecution manipulated his trial resulting in an unfair and illegitimate death sentence.

The only direct evidence that the prosecution presented at trial to prove that Romell Broom had kidnapped, raped and murdered Tryna Middleton were the testimonies of the two eyewitnesses. Their identification of Romell Broom, three months after the murder of their friend Tryna, as the man who had pulled her into his car and driven off with her, was the real source of the State's case.

The defense attorneys had nothing in their hands during the trial to question the credibility of the two girls and throw into doubt the combined indictments of kidnapping, rape and murder. Had they known and read the police reports from East Cleveland, that all three girls including the eyewitnesses were high on marijuana the night of the event, the defense would have been able to discredit the eyewitnesses in front of the jury. Eyewitnesses who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol are less credible than sober eyewitnesses.

Furthermore, had the defense been aware of the girls' reputation of getting into cars with strangers and partying with them, the defense might have been able to persuade the jury that maybe this wasn't a kidnapping and maybe this wasn't a rape, but that maybe Tryna Middleton had voluntarily gotten into this car and voluntarily engaged in sexual intercourse with this individual. This possibility is even more likely as there were no physical signs of rape on the body of Tryna Middleton.

As long as the defense had planted a reasonable doubt in the mind of the jury, they could have come back with an acquittal on both the kidnapping and the rape charge. If Romell Broom had been acquitted on both the kidnapping and rape charges, there would have been no death penalty possibility, because there were no additional felonies to bring the case into the scope of a capital case. As there was no evidence that linked Romell Broom to the murder, he might have been acquitted altogether.