'Forever 7': Grieving family of murdered Oklahoma girl eager for execution 40 years later
An Oklahoma woman whose 7-year-old daughter was raped and murdered in 1984 has been waiting four decades for justice.
Now the man convicted of the crime, Richard Rojem Jr., is set to be executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday.
“Forty years is a very long time to see the fulfillment of justice that his horrific crime deserves," Mindy Cummings wrote to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board about her daughter's murder. "It’s a long time to be concerned about our safety as long as this monster's alive."
Rojem and Cummings were married up until two months before Layla's murder, meaning he was her stepdad. The 66-year-old has always maintained his innocence but more recently has accepted his fate after running out of appeals, according to his attorney.
As Rojem's execution nears, USA TODAY is looking back at the life of the little girl who would've been in her mid-40s if she were alive today.
'Relive and reiterate this horror'
Vicky Cummings, Layla's aunt, said during the parole hearing that like her sister-in-law, said she's waited "40 long years" to see Rojem die.
“I have become weary all these years pressing against that prison door trying to keep him in," Vicky Cummings said. "Having to relive ... this horror − time and time again."
Vicky Cummings' brother, who was Layla's father, died a short time after her murder, she said, compounding the family's tragedies.
"Only 14 months had passed since he and I stood by the tiny white casket of his 7-year-old daughter," she told the board. “I beg of you, feel his pain."
Vicky Cummings told the board that denying Rojem clemency from execution would help Layla's family heal.
Mindy Cummings wrote to the board about how devastating her daughter's murder was.
"Everything she might have been was stolen from her one horrific night,” Cummings said. “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 denied clemency
The statements from Vicky and Layla Cummings helped guide the board in denying Rojem clemency.
“I am pleased the Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for the monster who savagely raped and murdered an innocent child and caused unimaginable suffering for her family,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a news release. “Justice for Layla will be served when he is executed on June 27.”
Before the board denied Rojem's attempt to spend the remainder of his life in prison, his attorney, Jack Fisher, told them that his client was not given a fair trial in 1985 and that he's now a Zen Buddhist who would not "be a threat to anyone."
Rojem also addressed the board, saying: "I did not murder Layla." He did not deny his wrongdoings early in life, including prior sex offense convictions.
Before Layla's murder, Rojem served four years in a Michigan prison for the rape of two teenage girls, Drummond said.
"I wasn’t a good human being for the first part of my life, and I don’t deny that,” a handcuffed Rojem said. “But I went to prison. I learned my lesson and I left all that behind.”
Richard Rojem's murder conviction, sentencings
Rojem abducted Layla from her family apartment in Elk City, Oklahoma, where she lived with her mother and 9-year-old brother, court documents say. Her brutalized body was found in the field still dressed in her mom's nightgown.
Rojem previously had luck with appeals following his 1985 conviction. He was sentenced to death twice but both sentences were thrown out in 2001 and 2006 due to issues with the jury in both instances, state court records show.
After jurors agreed to the death penalty for a third time in 2007, Rojem continued to fight until he ran out of appeals in 2017.
“The family of Layla Cummings has waited 40 years for justice to be done," Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a June 10 news release. "Her killer is a real-life monster who deserves the same absence of mercy he showed to the child he savagely murdered."