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 start of the year in Oklahoma and the ninth in the United States, in addition to the one canceled at the last minute on February 28 in Idaho, in the northwest of the country.
Layla Cummings, daughter of Richard Norman Rojem’s former partner Jrwas abducted 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, riddled with stab wounds near the neck and around the genitals.
A fingerprint found on a can of beer at the victim’s home as well as the wrapper of a condom found near the girl’s body constituted evidence against Richard Norman Rojem Jr.
Rojem has always proclaimed his innocence, pointing to “a case built entirely on indirect evidence”.
According to the local press, two first death sentences were overturned for procedural errors, before a final conviction in 2007.
Oklahoma resumed capital executions in 2021 after a six-year moratorium, due to 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 out of 50 American states. Six other states (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) observe a moratorium on executions by decision of the governor.
