An American man sentenced to death for the 1984 rape and murder of his seven-year-old stepdaughter was executed Thursday morning in Oklahoma, the southern US state’s prison administration said.
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Richard Norman Rojem Jr66, in prison for approximately 40 years, was pronounced dead at 10:16 a.m. (local time) following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in the city of McAlester, according to a news release.
This is the second execution since the beginning of the year in Oklahoma and the ninth in the United States, in addition to the one cancelled at the last minute on February 28 in Idaho, in the northwest of the country.
Layla Cummings, daughter of Richard Norman’s former partner Rojem Jrwas kidnapped from her Elk City home on the night of July 6-7, 1984, before her lifeless body was found in a field the next day, with stab wounds near her neck and around her genitals.
A fingerprint found on a beer can at the victim’s home and a condom wrapper found near the girl’s body were used as evidence against Richard Norman Rojem J.r.
Rojem has always proclaimed his innocence, pointing to “a case built entirely on indirect evidence”.
According to the local press, two initial death sentences were overturned due to procedural errors, before a final conviction in 2007.
Oklahoma resumed capital executions in 2021 after a six-year moratorium, following botched executions in 2014 and 2015.
A total of 24 executions were carried out in the United States in 2023, all by lethal injection.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states. Six other states (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) have a moratorium on executions by governor’s decision.
