Oklahoma moving forward with Thursday execution
Jun. 26—The State of Oklahoma is moving forward with the execution of a man convicted for the 1984 murder of a 7-year-old girl.
A Washita County jury sentenced Richard Rojem to death for the July 1984 death of 7-year-old Layla Cummings along with two 1,000-year sentences for rape and kidnapping.
Rojem, 66, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
Oklahoma's Pardon and Parole Board earlier this month unanimously denied clemency for Rojem, who has exhausted his appeals.
His attorneys argued during the hearing that Rojem is innocent and DNA evidence taken from the scene does not link him to the crime.
"If my client's DNA is not present, he should not be convicted," attorney Jack Fisher argued.
Attorneys from the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office argued there was plenty of evidence other than DNA that linked Rojem to Cummings' death.
Evidence presented during the trial said Cummings was abducted from her residence during the early morning hours of July 7, 1984. Her body was found later that morning in a field by a farmer.
The medical examiner testified Cummings died from two large stab wounds to the neck with additional stab wounds found on the body with the exam also finding injuries consistent with forced rape, according to court records.
Investigators connected Rojem to the murder after learning he recently divorced the child's mother and learned from a family member the mother's work schedule and that the lock to the residence was broken.
According to court records, a beer cup with Rojem's fingerprint was found 25 feet away from the residence the morning of the disappearance with video evidence showing Rojem being at a local bar the night before that served beer in the same cups.
A search of Rojem's apartment found used condoms that matched the brand of condom wrapping found near the girl's body, The brand was sold in a restroom dispenser at the bar Rojem was at with video showing the man entering the restroom before leaving the bar, court records state.
During questioning, Rojem told police he left the bar when it closed and slowly drove to the Burns Flat Superette, a distance of 24.7 miles, and arrived at 1:10 a.m. on July 7, 1984.
Rojem's first death sentence was thrown out by the state's appeal court due to an issue with jury instructions. A new jury resentenced Rojem to the death penalty in 2003. That sentence was also thrown out due to a mistake during the jury selection process.
He was again resentenced to death in 2007 by a Washita County jury with his appeals exhausting in 2017.
The Oklahoma Attorney General's Office asked OCCA to schedule Rojem for execution after a Pittsburg County Judge ruled death row inmate Wade Lay incompetent for execution. The request was also made after OCCA agreed to the AG's office request to set executions in 90-day intervals to reduce stress on state corrections staff.
Rojem was originally scheduled to be executed in October 2023 under a previous schedule that was later changed due to scheduling requests made by the AG's office.
"I wasn't a good human being for the first part of my life, and I don't deny that," Rojem told the Parole Board during his clemency hearing. "But I went to prison. I learned my lesson and I left all that behind."
Layla Cummings' mother in letter to the Board, requested clemency to be denied for her daughter's killer.
"Everything she might have been was stolen from her one horrific night," Mindy Lynn Cummings wrote. "She never got to be more than the precious seven-year-old that she was. And so she remains in our hearts — forever 7."
