Current:Home > MarketsOklahoma panel denies clemency for man convicted in 1984 killing of 7-year-old girl -Ascend Finance Compass
Oklahoma panel denies clemency for man convicted in 1984 killing of 7-year-old girl
TradeEdge View
Date:2025-04-09 02:17:25
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board on Monday unanimously denied clemency for a death row inmate convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 7-year-old girl in 1984, clearing the way for him to be executed later this month.
Richard Rojem, 66, 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. She had been stabbed to death.
Rojem has exhausted his appeals and is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on June 27. His attorneys argued that he is innocent and that DNA evidence taken from the girl’s fingernails did not link him to the crime.
“If my client’s DNA is not present, he should not be convicted,” attorney Jack Fisher said.
Fisher urged the board to recommend clemency to the governor so that Rojem could be spared execution and spend the rest of his life in prison. Gov. Kevin Stitt cannot commute Rojem’s death sentence without a clemency recommendation from the board.
Prosecutors say there is plenty of evidence other than DNA that was used to convict Rojem, including a fingerprint that was discovered outside the girl’s apartment on a cup from a bar Rojem left just before the girl was kidnapped. A condom wrapper found near the girl’s body also was linked to a used condom found in Rojem’s bedroom, prosecutors said.
Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Crabb said Rojem was previously convicted of raping two teenage girls in Michigan and was angry at Layla Cummings because she reported that he sexually abused her, leading to his divorce from the girl’s mother and his return to prison for violating his parole.
Rojem, who appeared via a video link from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, denied that he was responsible for raping and killing Layla.
“I wasn’t a good human being for the first part of my life, and I don’t deny that,” said Rojem, handcuffed and wearing a red prison uniform. “But I went to prison. I learned my lesson and I left all that behind.”
A Washita County jury convicted Rojem in 1985 after just 45 minutes of deliberations. His previous death sentences were twice overturned by appellate courts because of trial errors. A Custer County jury ultimately handed him his third death sentence in 2007.
Layla Cummings mother did not appear before the pardon’s board, but in a letter to the panel last month she urged them to deny clemency.
“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.”
veryGood! (4134)
Related
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- Gen Z's dream job in the influencer industry
- Kate Spade 24-Hour Flash Deal: Get This $250 Crossbody Bag for Just $59 and a Free Wallet
- Zac Efron Shares Rare Photo With Little Sister Olivia and Brother Henry During the Greatest Circus Trip
- Juan Soto praise of Mets' future a tough sight for Yankees, but World Series goal remains
- Championing Its Heritage, Canada Inches Toward Its Goal of Planting 2 Billion Trees
- The ‘State of the Air’ in America Is Unhealthy and Getting Worse, Especially for People of Color
- A group of state AGs calls for a national recall of high-theft Hyundai, Kia vehicles
- San Francisco names street for Associated Press photographer who captured the iconic Iwo Jima photo
- BuzzFeed shutters its newsroom as the company undergoes layoffs
Ranking
- Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
- The ‘State of the Air’ in America Is Unhealthy and Getting Worse, Especially for People of Color
- Step up Your Fashion With the Top 17 Trending Amazon Styles Right Now
- Boy Meets World's Original Topanga Actress Alleges She Was Fired for Not Being Pretty Enough
- Trump invites nearly all federal workers to quit now, get paid through September
- A Legal Pot Problem That’s Now Plaguing the Streets of America: Plastic Litter
- Tucker Carlson ousted at Fox News following network's $787 million settlement
- City and State Officials Continue Searching for the Cause of Last Week’s E. Coli Contamination of Baltimore’s Water
Recommendation
Could your smelly farts help science?
In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Pandemic Connects Rural Farmers and Urban Communities
Championing Its Heritage, Canada Inches Toward Its Goal of Planting 2 Billion Trees
The Fate of Protected Wetlands Are At Stake in the Supreme Court’s First Case of the Term
Jorge Ramos reveals his final day with 'Noticiero Univision': 'It's been quite a ride'
Tucker Carlson ousted at Fox News following network's $787 million settlement
The Fate of Protected Wetlands Are At Stake in the Supreme Court’s First Case of the Term
Today’s Climate: Manchin, Eyeing a Revival of Build Back Better, Wants a Ban on Russian Oil and Gas