A man convicted of murdering a seven-year-old Elk City girl in 1984 lost his bid Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court to have his death sentence overturned.
Richard Norman Rojem was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering his former stepdaughter, Layla Dawn Cummings. He has since been in prison fighting the death sentence he received as a result of that conviction.
Rojem has been sentenced to death three times for the crime, but the first two were reversed by appeals courts because of errors. Rojem's third death sentence came in 2007, and that sentence was upheld by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals before finally being heard before the high court.
The Supreme Court allowed the conviction and death sentence to stand, and made no comment on their ruling.