McALESTER — Oklahoma executed a man on Thursday man found guilty of kidnapping, raping and killing a niña 7 years old in 1984.
Richard Rojem, 66, was given a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:16 a.m., prison officials said.
Rojem denied responsibility for the murder of Layla Cummings, who was her stepdaughter. The girl’s mutilated and partially clothed body was discovered in a field in rural Washita County on July 7, 1984. She was stabbed to death.
Rojem was previously convicted of raping two teenage girls in Michigan, and prosecutors said he was angry with Layla Cummings because she accused him of sexually abusing her, leading him to divorce the girl’s mother and return to prison for violating his probation.
Rojem’s lawyers argued at a clemency hearing this month that DNA evidence taken from the girl’s fingernails did not link him to the crime.
“If my client’s DNA is not present, he should not be convicted,” said attorney Jack Fisher.
Layla’s mother, Mindy Lynn Cummings, wrote to the parole board: “For many years, the shock of losing her and the knowledge of the sheer terror, pain and suffering she endured at the hands of this heartless monster was more than I could bear. I could imagine how to survive day to day.”
Prosecutors said there was plenty of evidence to convict Rojem, including a fingerprint that was discovered outside the girl’s apartment on the mug of a bar that Rojem left just before the girl was kidnapped. A condom wrapper found near the girl’s body was also linked to a used condom found in Rojem’s bedroom, prosecutors said.
Oklahoma, which has executed more inmates per capita than any other state in the country since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, has carried out 13 executions since lethal injections resumed in October 2021 after a nearly six-year hiatus.
Source: With information from AP
