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Oklahoma sets execution date for death row inmate Richard Rojem

Richard Norman Rojem Jr. mug shot
Oklahoma Department of Corrections
Richard Norman Rojem Jr.

Oklahoma’s next execution will be in late June.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set a date for the state’s second execution of 2024, late last week.

Richard Norman Rojem Jr., 66, is scheduled to be executed on June 27. First reported by The Oklahoman, Rojem was convicted of the 1984 murder and rape of his seven-year-old stepdaughter Layla Dawn Cummings and has been incarcerated for nearly four decades.

Rojem’s first two death sentences were thrown out because of procedural errors. However, in 2007 he was re-sentenced to death. Friday’s court order said Rojem has exhausted all of his appeals, though he maintains his innocence.

The execution by lethal injection will occur 84 days after Michael Dwayne Smith was put to death on April 4. Attorney General Gentner Drummond has asked the court to schedule executions 90 days apart instead of 60 to reduce the stress put on the volunteer execution teams.

The court has agreed to extend the period between executions “unless circumstances dictate modification.”


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Cait Kelley was a summer intern at KOSU in 2024 through the Scripps Howard Fund summer internship program.
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