Rapides DA Phillip Terrell joins other in trying to stop clemency hearings for killers

Rapides Parish District Attorney Phillip Terrell joined some of his counterparts Wednesday in seeking an injunction to stop clemency hearings set to begin next month.

The Rapides case at question is that of Larry Roy, a Cheneyville man found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in July 1994. The jury recommended death, and he was formally sentenced to death in August 1994.

On May 3, 1993, Roy attacked five people with a knife in a Cheneyville home. Killed were Freddie Richard Jr., 33, and his aunt, 75-year-old Rosetta H. Silas. Richard's ex-wife, Sally Richard, and his two sons, ages 10 and 8, survived.

Roy was the former live-in boyfriend of the injured woman and was described as "jealous," according to a Town Talk article about the murders. The divorced couple had decided to get back together, said Terrell.

He said Roy confronted them hours before he broke into their home while everyone was asleep. Freddie Richard was killed first, then he attacked Sally and the couple's sons.

Silas, who was battling cancer, was attacked last.

Now, 30 years later, Roy is among 56 Louisiana death-row inmates who have filed for clemency. According to the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, a clemency hearing for a non-capital offense can take up to a year.

Terrell is among several district attorneys who filed for an injunction Wednesday morning. In the filing, he claims recent actions by the Louisiana Board of Pardons violates the state's open meetings law.

He told The Town Talk that the issue isn't about whether the death penalty is right or wrong, but rather that the victims in this case are being denied due process through the board's actions.

"We’re frankly demanding that the victims be treated fairly," he said.

According to the association, the board voted on July 24 to return the clemency applications for those 56 inmates to them because they violated its rules. But the board reversed that decision on Aug. 10 without a meeting after Gov. John Bel Edwards asked it to reconsider.

Those hearings are slated to begin on Oct. 13.

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The association, and Terrell's request for an injunction, contends the board violated the state's open meetings law and its own rules and policies in reversing the decision.

"The applicants are attempting to force 50+ capital clemency hearings into a four-month period," reads the release. "This process is a direct attack upon and complete disregard for the victims, their families and the rule of law. The rushed and hurried consideration of these complex and most serious applications introduces chaos and distrust into a deliberate, measured and trustworthy process."

The filing by Terrell and other district attorneys follows one made on Sept. 12 by East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore in three other cases.

But the executive director of the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project, a nonprofit that works on behalf of indigent death-row inmates, said the board has been "completely transparent" in handling the clemency applications and has followed it rules.

"It is disheartening to see the district attorneys and AG Landry working so hard to block the board from considering these individuals’ claims of innocence, intellectual disability, serious mental illness, prosecutorial misconduct, youth, ineffective counsel and the other serious flaws in their cases and Louisiana’s death penalty system," said Cecelia Kappel in an emailed statement. "If the prosecutors have confidence in the integrity of these convictions and death sentences, they should have nothing to fear from a clemency hearing."

Terrell, other DAs and some victims spoke Wednesday morning outside the association's Baton Rouge office. He called the Roy case "such a heinous" one and spoke about what had happened.

Standing with Sally Richard and her niece, Brea Compton, he told onlookers how Roy had tied the three survivors with electrical cords and slit their throats, telling them they'd soon be dead.

"They managed to drag themselves out of the house," said Terrell, who said the three could hear Silas screaming while being stabbed to death.

Roy evaded authorities for a few days, and Terrell said there was evidence that showed he tried to reach the victims while they were recovering in a hospital. Richard and her sons later testified against him.

Terrell said both the verdict and the sentence of death against Roy were unanimous and that he deserved to be on death row.

He reiterated that the board wasn't following the correct procedure and that it had violated both those procedures and the open meetings law.

"This came as a shock to our victims, and they have the right to have these things appropriately heard," said Terrell.

Roy's hearing is set for Nov. 8, and Terrell said that does not give his office enough time to go over the hundreds of pages of records or secure their own experts to fight against Roy's petition.

He said it's "not fair" to go ahead without being prepared. He said his office plans to file motions for discovery and ask the board if they followed their own rules.

No court dates have been scheduled yet. Terrell said he was waiting to see who will represent the board since the AG's office normally would defend it.

But Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is the leading Republican candidate to replace Edwards in next month's primary election, filed a lawsuit of his own on Wednesday, also opposing the hearings.

Terrell called that a "conundrum," but said his office plans to defend the case "vigorously."

"We think we’re right.”

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Rapides DA says victims of murderer Larry Roy deserve fair treatment