Oklahoma executed Richard Rojem, 66, on Thursday for the 1984 kidnapping, rape, and murder of his former stepdaughter, 7-year-old Layla Cummings. Rojem, who had exhausted his appeals, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He had been in prison since 1985 and was the longest-serving inmate on Oklahoma’s death row.
When asked if he had any last words, Rojem, strapped to a gurney with an IV in his tattooed left arm, responded, “I don’t. I’ve said my goodbyes.”
The execution began at 10:03 a.m., and Rojem was declared unconscious at 10:08 a.m. He was pronounced dead at 10:16 a.m. State Department of Corrections Director Steven Harpe confirmed these details in a statement. A spiritual adviser was present with Rojem during the execution.
“Justice for Layla Cummings was finally served this morning with the execution of the monster responsible for her rape and murder,” state Attorney General Gentner Drummond said after the execution. “Layla’s family has endured unimaginable suffering for almost 40 years. My prayer is that today’s action brings a sense of comfort to those who loved her.”
Rojem’s last meal, served on Wednesday evening, included a small Little Caesars pizza with double cheese and double pepperoni, a ginger ale, and two vanilla ice cream cups.
During a clemency hearing earlier this month, Rojem denied responsibility for the girl’s death. Layla’s mutilated and partially clothed body was discovered in a field near Burns Flat, Oklahoma. She had been stabbed to death. “I wasn’t a good human being for the first part of my life, and I don’t deny that,” Rojem said, appearing via video link from prison. “But I went to prison. I learned my lesson and I left all that behind.” The state’s Pardon and Parole Board unanimously denied Rojem’s bid for mercy.
Previously convicted of raping two teenage girls in Michigan, Rojem was allegedly angry at Layla because she reported that he had sexually abused her, leading to his divorce from her mother and his return to prison for parole violation.
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.”
Prosecutors used a variety of evidence to convict Rojem, including a fingerprint found outside Layla’s apartment and a condom wrapper linked to a used condom in Rojem’s bedroom. Despite Rojem’s attorneys arguing that DNA evidence did not link him to the crime, a Washita County jury convicted him in 1985. His previous death sentences were overturned due to trial errors, but a Custer County jury handed him his third death sentence in 2007.
With Rojem’s execution, Oklahoma has now carried out 13 executions since resuming lethal injections in October 2021, following a nearly six-year hiatus due to problems with executions in 2014 and 2015. Death penalty opponents held vigils on Thursday outside the governor’s mansion in Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.