Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Executed for Double Killing After 3 Last Words

Richard Rojem was executed on Thursday for the rape and murder of his 7-year-old former stepdaughter in 1984.

In a grim execution, Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Rojem was put to death by lethal injection on Thursday morning for the heinous rape and murder of his 7-year-old former stepdaughter in 1984.

Rojem's final words before his execution were brief and stoic: "I don't. I've said my goodbyes."

Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Executed for Double Killing After 3 Last Words

The execution, Oklahoma's second of 2024, marks the 13th since the state resumed capital punishment in October 2021 after a six-year hiatus. Rojem, 66, had been imprisoned since 1985 and was the longest-serving inmate on Oklahoma's death row.

Prior to the execution, Rojem had consistently denied responsibility for killing his former stepdaughter, Layla Cummings. The child's mutilated and partially clothed body was discovered in a rural field near Burns Flat on July 7, 1984. She had been kidnapped, raped, and stabbed to death.

Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Executed for Double Killing After 3 Last Words

Attorney General Gentner Drummond expressed satisfaction with the execution, stating that "justice for Layla Cummings was finally served." He extended his condolences to the family, hoping that the execution would provide some solace.

Prior to the execution, Drummond had urged the state's pardon and parole board to reject clemency for Rojem. He emphasized Rojem's prior conviction for raping two teenage girls in Michigan before the murder of Cummings.

Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Executed for Double Killing After 3 Last Words

Prosecutors maintained that Rojem had harbored anger towards Cummings because she had reported his sexual abuse, leading to his divorce and imprisonment. They presented evidence such as a fingerprint matching Rojem's on a cup outside the girl's apartment and a condom wrapper found near her body linked to a condom from his bedroom.

Rojem's attorneys had argued that DNA evidence from the girl's fingernails did not connect him to the crime. They expressed concern that he was being convicted without conclusive DNA evidence.

Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Executed for Double Killing After 3 Last Words

Despite their efforts, a Washita County jury convicted Rojem in 1985, sentencing him to death. Appellate courts twice overturned his death sentences due to trial errors, but a Custer County jury ultimately upheld the third death sentence in 2007.

In a statement read by Drummond after the execution, Layla's mother, Mindy Lynn Cummings, expressed her gratitude for the closure brought by the execution. She remembered her daughter as a sweet and precious child and condemned Rojem as a "monster."

Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Executed for Double Killing After 3 Last Words

Rojem had converted to Zen Buddhism while in prison, adopting the name Daiji. At a parole board hearing earlier this month, he expressed remorse for his past actions: "I wasn't a good human being for the first part of my life, and I don't deny that... But I went to prison. I learned my lesson and I left all that behind."

However, his statements were met with skepticism and disbelief by the parole board, which ultimately denied his request for clemency.