Oklahoma has executed a man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 7-year-old girl in 1984. Sixty-six-year-old Richard Rojem was given a lethal injection Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Prison officials say he was pronounced dead at 10:16 a.m.
FILE - This photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows Richard Rojem, a death row inmate housed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Okla., Feb. 11, 2023. Oklahoma ’s Pardon and Parole Board is denying clemency for Rojem, convicted of raping and killing a 7-year-old girl in 1984. Monday’s 5-0 decision paves the way for 66-year-old Richard Rojem to be executed by lethal injection on June 27, 2024. McALESTER, Okla.
Rojem had denied responsibility for killing his former stepdaughter, Layla Cummings. The child’s mutilated and partially clothed body was discovered in a field in rural Washita County near the town of Burns Flat on July 7, 1984. She had been stabbed to death. 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 that she endured at the hands of this soulless monster was more than I could fathom how to survive day to day,”Rojem, who testified at the hearing via a video link from prison, said he wasn’t responsible for the girl’s death. The panel voted 5-0 not to recommend to the governor that Rojem’s life be spared.
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