On July 6, 1984, in Elk City, Oklahoma, seven-year-old Layla Cummings (November 7, 1976 – July 7, 1984) was abducted, raped, and murdered by her ex-stepfather, Richard Norman Rojem Jr., who was previously convicted and jailed for sex offenses. Rojem, who was formerly married to Cummings's biological mother before their divorce, was convicted of murdering Cummings and sentenced to death in 1985. Rojem, who failed in multiple attempts to overturn his death sentence, was incarcerated on death row for close to 40 years before he was executed via lethal injection after the state parole board rejected his appeal for clemency.[1]
Layla Cummings | |
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![]() Court file photo of Layla Cummings | |
Born | Layla Dawn Marie Cummings November 7, 1976 Oklahoma, U.S. |
Died | July 7, 1984 Elk City, Oklahoma, U.S. | (aged 7)
Resting place | Fairlawn Cemetery |
Nationality | American |
Known for | Victim of a kidnapping, rape and murder case |
Parent(s) | Donald Cummings (father) Mindy Lynn Cummings (mother) |
Family | Jason Cummings (brother) Vicky Cummings (aunt) |
Murder
editOn July 6, 1984, at an apartment in Elk City, Oklahoma, seven-year-old Layla Dawn Marie Cummings, who was home alone with her brother, was kidnapped. The perpetrator was her former stepfather, Richard Norman Rojem Jr., who was previously married to her mother, who was out on a work shift at a fast food restaurant at the time of the incident.[2][3]
Prior to abducting his stepdaughter, Rojem was previously convicted of raping two teenage girls in Macomb County, Michigan in 1978. Rojem, who faced three counts of criminal sexual conduct and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, was sentenced to two concurrent sentences of six to 15 years imprisonment, but he served only four years before being released on parole. Rojem first met the brother of Cummings's birth mother, Mindy Cummings, while in prison, and he married her after his release. However, sources revealed that Rojem was sexually violent against Cummings's mother, and he did not have a good relationship overall with Cummings and her older brother. It was stated that Cummings had reported her stepfather for sexual violence and it caused Rojem to be sent to prison for violating his parole order. Shortly before the abduction, Cummings's mother successfully filed for divorce, and Rojem was set free soon after, and he went on to kidnap the girl, supposedly out of vengeance.[4][3]
The following morning after Rojem kidnapped Cummings, a farmer discovered the mutilated and partially clothed body of Cummings in a field near Burns Flat. An autopsy discovered that Cummings died as a result of multiple stab wounds inflicted before her death. The stab wounds were concentrated on the neck of Cummings, as well as the girl's vaginal area. It was also certified that Cummings had been raped before she was killed.[5][3]
The police investigators were able to connect Rojem to the murder and arrested him as a suspect. Evidence showed that Rojem was aware of his ex-wife's work schedule and the lock to her apartment door was broken, presumably by Rojem when he intruded the apartment to abduct Cummings. Rojem's fingerprint was found on a cup discovered outside the girl's apartment and the cup itself belonged to a bar where Rojem last patroned just before the abduction of Cummings. A condom wrapper found near the girl's body came from a used condom found in Rojem's bedroom at his place of residence. Tire marks belonging to the wheels of Rojem's vehicle were also found at the murder scene.[6][3]
Richard Rojem's trial and appeals
editOriginal trial and sentencing
editRichard Norman Rojem Jr. | |
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2023 mugshot of Richard Rojem, who became Oklahoma's longest-serving death row inmate before his execution | |
Born | Oklahoma, U.S. | December 19, 1957
Died | June 27, 2024 | (aged 66)
Cause of death | Execution by lethal injection |
Conviction(s) | Michigan Rape (x4) Oklahoma Murder Rape Kidnapping |
Criminal penalty | Michigan Six to 15 years' imprisonment Oklahoma 1000 years' imprisonment (rape) 1000 years' imprisonment (kidnapping) Death (murder) |
Details | |
Victims | Layla Cummings, 7 Two adolescent rape victims (unnamed) |
Date | Michigan 1978 Oklahoma July 6 – July 7, 1984 |
Location(s) | 1978 Macomb County, Michigan 1984 Washita County, Oklahoma |
Imprisoned at | Oklahoma State Penitentiary |
Richard Rojem, who was remanded without bail at the Beckham County Jail, was charged on July 28, 1984, for the abduction, rape, and murder of Layla Cummings. Prosecutors expressed their intent to seek the death penalty for Rojem on the charge of murder, which carried either a death sentence or life imprisonment within Oklahoma's state jurisdiction.[7]
On June 1, 1985, Rojem, who stood trial before a jury in the Washita County District Court, was found guilty of kidnapping, raping, and murdering Cummings after the jury spent 45 minutes to deliberate over the verdict.[8] The same jury recommended a jail term of 1000 years each for the charges of kidnapping and rape, but for the most serious charge of murder, the death penalty was meted out for Rojem. Official sentencing took place on July 11, 1985, and Rojem was formally sentenced to death for the murder of Layla Cummings.[9][10]
On March 23, 1988, by a majority decision of two to one, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Rojem's appeal and upheld his death sentence and murder conviction.[11]
Re-sentencing bids in the 2000s
editOn March 31, 2001, 15 years after he was first sent to death row, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned Rojem's death sentence and ordered that he should undergo a re-sentencing trial. The appellate court ruled that the trial judge violated Rojem's constitutional rights because the jury was misdirected by the judge, who did not ask them to consider the mitigating factors against the aggravating circumstances when deciding on the sentence. A new jury trial would take place in relation to Rojem's re-sentencing and the prosecution sought the death penalty for Rojem once again.[12]
Rojem, who was granted DNA testing during his re-sentencing trial, was once again sentenced to death in 2003.[13]
Three years later, in 2006, Rojem's second death sentence was once again vacated by the higher courts due to procedural and trial errors, including the failure to dismiss three jurors for cause. Rojem's second re-sentencing trial began in May 2007,[14][15] and during that same year, Rojem was sentenced to death for the third time by a Custer County jury.[16]
Unlike all his previous legal attempts, Rojem failed all of his appeals against the third death sentence. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the appeal in 2009, on the grounds that Rojem's death sentence was "factually substantiated and appropriate" in spite of some errors in the 2007 re-sentencing hearing. In January 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately rejected Rojem's appeal and confirmed the death sentence.[17][18]
By 2017, Rojem's final appeal was dismissed, with the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to review his death sentence, making him the 16th condemned inmate to exhaust all avenues of appeal in Oklahoma's death row. At that point, a moratorium was imposed on Oklahoma's impending executions since 2015, after it was found that the wrong drug was administered to convicted murderer Charles Frederick Warner when he was executed via lethal injection on January 15, 2015.[19][20]
As of February 2020, Rojem was one of 26 inmates eligible for execution after exhausting all available appeals against the conviction and sentence.[21]
Death row and execution
editFor the next four decades after his first sentencing trial, Richard Rojem remained on death row while appealing against his death sentence.
During his time on death row, Rojem had a history of violence behind bars and got disciplined for misconduct at least eight times, often for defiant behavior against the prison staff and assaulting other people. In 2020, he was recorded by the prison for illegally possessing sharp weapons in jail.[22]
In 1987, Rojem was also identified as a suspect behind the hiring of hitmen to kill the witnesses in the case against Bigler Stouffer, another death row inmate convicted of murdering a schoolteacher in 1985. Rojem was not charged in this case as he agreed to testify against Stouffer in this case.[23][24] Stouffer was eventually executed on December 9, 2021, becoming the oldest person put to death in Oklahoma at age 79.[25]
Rojem came close to being executed more than once before his death sentence was ultimately carried out in 2024. The first time happened in 1993, when the state authorities applied for the scheduling of Rojem's execution date and five other prisoners.[26] Rojem's first death warrant slated his execution date as August 6, 1993.[27] However, it was delayed, and another death warrant was subsequently issued in October 1993, with Rojem's execution date rescheduled as February 15, 1994. The execution date was ultimately staved off for unknown reasons.[28][29]
In August 2022, two months after a death row inmate's failed legal challenge against the constitutionality of Oklahoma's execution protocols,[30] Rojem was one of the 25 inmates who had their execution dates scheduled after their avenues of appeal were all exhausted. Rojem's execution date was slated as October 5, 2023. However, it was delayed for presumed legal reasons.[31]
In January 2024, Rojem was one of the six inmates whose executions would take place every 90 days apart from each other, after a legal motion was filed in Oklahoma state courts to authorize new death warrants for the six inmates on the list.[32]
In May 2024, a new death warrant was issued for Rojem, and Rojem's execution was rescheduled to take place on June 27, 2024.[33]
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board conducted a clemency hearing for Rojem in mid-June 2024.[34] Rojem maintained his innocence and insisted he never killed his stepdaughter throughout the hearing and asked for mercy, and his lawyers also implored the parole board to commute his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Under Oklahoma state law, the governor of Oklahoma had the discretion to grant clemency to a death row prisoner upon the parole board's recommendation to grant clemency, but no clemency would be given if the parole board rejected the clemency plea. Layla Cummings's mother and surviving family members urged the parole board to not grant Rojem clemency, stating that the family was still struggling with the pain and grief of losing Cummings 40 years ago.[35][36]
On June 18, 2024, nine days before the date of Rojem's impending execution, the parole board unanimously refused to recommend clemency for Rojem via a vote of five to zero. Attorney General Gentner Drummond applauded the parole board's decision, stating that Rojem, whom he described as a "monster who savagely raped and murdered an innocent child", did not deserve clemency and justice would be fully served once the execution went ahead.[37][38] During the final days leading up to the execution, Rojem did not file any last-minute appeals to further delay his execution, and a vigil attended by death penalty opponents was scheduled to take place outside the governor's mansion in Oklahoma City and the prison where Rojem's execution would take place.[39]
On June 27, 2024, nearly 40 years after murdering seven-year-old Layla Cummings, 66-year-old Richard Norman Rojem Jr. was formally put to death via lethal injection at Oklahoma State Penitentiary.[40][41] When asked if he had any last words, Rojem said, "I don't. I've said my goodbyes." Rojem was pronounced dead at 10.16 a.m. after one dose of midazolam and other drugs were separately administered to him on the gurney.[42]
Rojem's execution, which was Oklahoma's 13th documented execution since the 2021 resumption of executions in Oklahoma, took place just less than a day after Ramiro Gonzales, who was found guilty of murdering an 18-year-old girl in 2001, was executed at a Texas state prison.[43][44] Rojem was the second person to be executed in Oklahoma in 2024, two months after Michael Dewayne Smith, who was put to death on April 4, 2024 for a 2002 double murder in Oklahoma City.[45][46]
For his last meal, Rojem ordered a small Little Caesars's pizza with double cheese and double pepperoni, eight salt packets, eight crushed red pepper packets, a bottle of ginger ale, a Styrofoam cup and two vanilla ice cream cups.[47][48]
According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Richard Rojem was the state's longest-serving death row prisoner at the time of his execution.[49]
Aftermath
editIn the aftermath, Layla Cummings's mother and brother moved to Portland, Oregon, where the former volunteered with a charity foundation aimed to help children who dealt with grief and loss. Cummings's mother later moved back to Oklahoma, where she dedicated herself to charity to contribute to aiding the welfare of families who lost their loved ones to murder, and also took part in charity efforts when the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing took place.[50]
In response to Rojem's eventual execution, Cummings's surviving family members all welcomed the outcome, stating that justice had been served. Cumming's mother stated that Layla never got to live the life she should have after everything was stolen from her on that fateful night when she was murdered. Cummings's aunt, whose brother was the girl's biological father, said that the rejection of clemency was a sign of healing and justice for the family. She revealed that Cummings's father died 14 months after the murder, and she felt weary for maintaining the efforts to keep Rojem in jail for murdering her niece and patiently waited for 40 years to see him executed for the crime. Oklahoma's Attorney General Gentner Drummond similarly concurred with the stance of Cummings's family, stating that Rojem deserved the same absence of mercy he demonstrated to Cummings when he murdered her in cold blood back in 1984.[51] However, some opposed to the execution of Rojem, and several people, including former death row inmate Paris Powell, protested outside the mansion of the Oklahoma governor against the execution.[52]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Death row killer Richard Rojem who raped and murdered girl, 7, in horror slaughter executed in Oklahoma". The Mirror. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Ex-Stepdad Jailed In Child's Slaying". The Oklahoman. July 14, 1984.
- ^ a b c d Rojem v. State [1988], Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (United States).
- ^ "Slain Girl's Ex-Stepfather Charged With Kidnapping". The Oklahoman. July 17, 1984.
- ^ "Mother, Medical Examiners Testify in Missing Girl's Death". The Oklahoman. November 9, 1984.
- ^ "Oklahoma man to be executed for the rape and murder of his 7-year-old former stepdaughter". USA Today. June 26, 2024.
- ^ "Ex-Stepdad Accused In Slaying". The Oklahoman. July 28, 1984.
- ^ "Man Guilty in Girl's Death". The Oklahoman. June 1, 1985.
- ^ "Sentencing Set for July 11". The Oklahoman. June 4, 1985.
- ^ "US man executed for murder of 7-year-old girl". VN Express. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Death Sentence Upheld". The Oklahoman. March 23, 1988.
- ^ "Child murderer wins death penalty appeal Court rules jury instructions wrong; new jurors to decide on resentencing". The Oklahoman. March 31, 2001.
- ^ "Sentencing retrial delayed for DNA test1". The Oklahoman. September 17, 2002.
- ^ "Sentencing set in retrial". The Oklahoman. July 25, 2006.
- ^ "Jury selection begins as man faces third sentencing trial". The Oklahoman. May 30, 2007.
- ^ "Oklahoma prepares to execute man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing 7-year-old girl in 1984". NBC News. July 27, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma child killer's death sentence upheld by U.S. Supreme Court". The Oklahoman. January 11, 2010.
- ^ "Child killer's death sentence upheld". The Oklahoman. January 12, 2010.
- ^ "Executions in Oklahoma still on hold". The Oklahoman. October 8, 2017.
- ^ "Deliberate steps a must before Oklahoma executions resume". The Oklahoman. October 12, 2017.
- ^ "Oklahoma Death Row: 26 inmates eligible for execution dates". The Oklahoman. February 14, 2020.
- ^ "Oklahoma is set to execute its longest-serving death row prisoner". The Frontier. June 20, 2024.
- ^ "Death Row Inmate Charged in Plot". The Oklahoman. May 29, 1987.
- ^ "Plot Charge Dismissed Against Inmate". The Oklahoman. October 17, 1987.
- ^ "Oklahoma executes man for 1985 slaying of schoolteacher". The Oklahoman. December 10, 2021.
- ^ "Loving Asks Court to Set Executions for 6 Inmates". The Oklahoman. March 5, 1993.
- ^ "Court Rejects Appeal by Stafford Killer's Bid Denied; Executions Set". The Oklahoman. April 30, 1993.
- ^ "Death Dates Set For 7 Murderers". The Oklahoman. October 2, 1993.
- ^ "Appeals Court Refuses Delay Of Executions". The Oklahoman. December 30, 1993.
- ^ "28 Oklahoma death row inmates could be executed over next two years after judge's ruling". The Oklahoman. June 6, 2022.
- ^ "The next Oklahoma death row inmates scheduled for execution". The Oklahoman. August 25, 2022.
- ^ "Oklahoma governor says he's not interested in changing from lethal injection to nitrogen executions". AP News. January 31, 2024.
- ^ "Death row inmate Richard Rojem set for execution June 27". The Oklahoman. May 17, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma man facing June 27 execution plans to request clemency at hearing". Oklahoma Voice. June 14, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma executes man convicted of 1984 rape and murder of his 7-year-old, former stepdaughter". Oklahoma Voice. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma to execute Richard Rojem Jr. for 1984 murder of 7-year-old step daughter". UPI. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma panel denies clemency for man convicted in 1984 killing of 7-year-old girl". AP News. June 18, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denies clemency to convicted killer". Oklahoma Voice. June 17, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma prepares to execute man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing 7-year-old girl in 1984". The Independent. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma executes man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing 7-year-old girl in 1984". AP News. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma executes man for rape and murder of his 7-year-old former stepdaughter". The Independent. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Death row killer Richard Rojem gave chilling last five words before execution for rape and murder of child". The Mirror. June 29, 2024.
- ^ "Texas man executed by lethal injection after US supreme court denies stay". The Guardian. June 26, 2024.
- ^ "Texas executes Ramiro Gonzales after failed appeals that argued he was no longer a threat nor eligible for death penalty". CNN. June 26, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma executes convicted child murderer Richard Rojem Jr". UPI. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Michael Dewayne Smith executed in Oklahoma decades after double murder". BBC. April 5, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma executes Richard Rojem for kidnapping, rape, murder of 7-year-old former stepdaughter". CBS News. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma executes Richard Rojem Jr. in ex-stepdaughter's murder: 'Final chapter of justice'". USA Today. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Oklahoma executes Richard Rojem for child's death after almost 40 years on death row". The Oklahoman. June 27, 2024.
- ^ "Charity's start linked to death of 7-year-old 1995 bombing spurred efforts". The Oklahoman. December 26, 2003.
- ^ "'Forever 7': Grieving family of murdered Oklahoma girl eager for execution 40 years later". USA Today. June 26, 2024.
- ^ "Richard Rojem execution draws protestors in front of Governor's Mansion". The Oklahoman. June 27, 2024.