Richard Rojem Jr. is set to be executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday for the rape and murder of his 7-year-old former stepdaughter. If it goes forward, the execution will be the nation's second in as many days.
Rojem, 66, was convicted in 1985 of raping and stabbing 7-year-old Layla Dawn Cummings to death. Her brutalized body was left in a field and found by a farmer; she was still wearing her mom's nightgown.
"Everything she might have been was stolen from her one horrific night,” Layla's mother, Mindy Cummings, told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board this month. “She never got to be more than the precious 7-year-old that she was. And so she remains in our hearts − forever 7.”
Richard Rojem Jr. executed:Oklahoma executes Richard Rojem Jr. in ex-stepdaughter's murder
Rojem has always maintained his innocence, telling the board on June 17: “I did not kidnap Layla. I did not rape Layla. And I did not murder Layla."
The board rejected his clemency request. His execution will be the state's second of the year and the nation's ninth.
Here's what we know ahead of the execution.
Layla was abducted from an apartment in Elk City, Oklahoma, where she lived with her mother and 9-year-old brother, on July 6, 1984, Oklahoma state court documents say. The children's mother and Rojem's ex-wife, Mindy Cummings, had left them alone to work a late shift at a local fast-food restaurant.
The child's body was found the next morning in a field 15 miles from her home by a farm in Burns Flat. the appellate court records say.
Rojem and Mindy Cummings had only been divorced for two months before Layla's murder. The two met while Rojem was serving time in a Michigan prison for the rape of two teenage girls; Cummings was the sister of Rojem's cellmate, according to court records.
The then-26-year-old Rojem knew Cummings' work schedule and that the lock to her apartment door was broken, according to the court filings.
Rojem was found guilty on May 31, 1985 and sentenced to death.
Rojem appealed his death sentence multiple times until he exhausted his attempts in 2017, Oklahoma court records show. He did win two appeals as his initial and second death sentences were thrown out in 2001 and 2006 due to problems with the jury in both instances.
A jury sentenced him to death again in 2007, and he did not win anymore appeals afterward.
Rojem's final attempt to remain on death row for the rest of his life was on June 17 during a clemency hearing. During the hearing, Rojem maintained that he did not murder Layla and he apologized for his past, which included the rape of two teenage girls.
"I wasn’t a good human being for the first part of my life, and I don’t deny that,” a handcuffed Rojem said during the hearing. “But I went to prison. I learned my lesson and I left all that behind.”
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied Rojem clemency.
Rojem is scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. CT at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, 90 miles south of Tulsa.
Oklahoma executions are scheduled 90 days apart due to the "emotional and mental trauma on correctional staff," Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a May news release. The execution interval was previously 60 days, he added.
Rojem will be executed with a three-drug lethal injection containing midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride, according to Oklahoma execution protocols.
Midazolam is a sedative that is normally administered to help patients feel relaxed before surgery, vecuronium bromide is peripherally used as part of general anesthesia and potassium chloride is a medication for low blood potassium. The combination of the drugs the prison is using is fatal.
The Oklahoma Attorney General's Office told USA TODAY that the "witness list is confidential for security reasons."
While unclear who will be in the execution room, the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester does provide a place to view for people 18 or older who are immediate family of any deceased victim of the defendant, according to state statutes.
Rojem's attorney, Jack Fisher, told USA TODAY that he would be attending his client's execution on Thursday.
Among the select members of the news media who will witness the execution is reporter Nolan Clay of The Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY Network.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Rojem's final meal will consist of:
