A clemency hearing has been set for June 17, 2024 for Richard Norman Rojem Jr., who is once again scheduled to be executed on June 27th. Rojem was previously set to be put to death on October 5, 2023, but his execution was stopped due to requests by the State of Oklahoma to schedule at least 90 days between executions. This pushed back execution dates on several inmates on death row.
Rojem has spent decades on death row after being convicted in 1985 by a jury in Washita County District Court of the kidnapping, rape and first-degree murder of his former stepdaughter, Layla Dawn Cummings. Details of the crime were so horrifying and the evidence against Rojem was so overwhelming that it took only 45 minutes for the jury to come to their decision.
His first death sentence was thrown out in 2001 because of a mistake on jury instructions during his trial. A new jury again chose the death penalty for Rojem at a resentencing trial in Washita County in 2003. That death sentence was again overturned, this time three years later due to a mistake in the jury selection process. Jurors in a second resentencing trial also agreed to the death penalty.
In 1988 the Oklahoma Court of Criminal appeals noted that he “was connected to the offenses by a significant amount of circumstantial evidence” and Rojem exhausted his appeals in 2017.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has asked that the state’s Pardon and Parole Board reject clemency for Rojem.
Genter said “The family of Layla Cummings has waited 40 years for justice to be done. Her killer is a real-life monster who deserves the same absence of mercy he showed to the child he savagely murdered. I urge the Pardon and Parole Board to reject the inmate’s absurd request for clemency and ensure justice is done for Layla.”