A Rapides Parish, La., man could be the first person the state puts to death in 15 years after the district attorney obtained a warrant Monday for his execution, the Louisiana Illuminator reports. Larry Roy has been on death row since his 1994 conviction for a double murder. Police said Roy attacked his ex-girlfriend, Sally Richard, and her ex-husband, Freddie Richard Jr., with a knife in front of her two children. The woman and her children survived, but Roy killed her aunt, Rosetta Salas, and Freddie Richard Jr. Rapides DA Phillip Terrell , requested an execution on March 29. Gov. Jeff Landry declared the state had established its protocol for using nitrogen gas as an execution method. Last year, the legislature and governor approved nitrogen hypoxia to carry out the death penalty. They followed the lead of Alabama, where GOP Gov. Kay Ivey adopted the method and used it to execute three people in 2024 and a fourth man last week. “For too long, Louisiana has failed to uphold the promises made to victims of our State’s most violent crimes; but that failure of leadership by previous administrations is over,” Landry said. “The time for broken promises has ended; we will carry out these sentences and justice will be dispensed.”
Attorney General Liz Murrill supported resuming the death penalty as soon as possible, implying more executions could be in the works. In addition to Roy, there are 57 people on death row in Louisiana. “I look forward to each judge upholding their statutory duty to execute these death warrants according to the law,” Murrill said. “The families of these victims have waited long enough for justice, and Louisiana will put them first.” Louisiana has not put a condemned person to death since 2010, when Gerald Bordelon waived his right to appeals and died by lethal injection. Bordelon had been convicted of the 2002 rape and murder of Courtney LeBlanc, his 12-year-old stepdaughter. Groups opposed to the death penalty are expected to challenge Louisiana’s use of nitrogen hypoxia. A comparable lawsuit unfolded in Alabama last year after its first nitrogen execution. Witnesses said Kenneth Eugene Smith struggled significantly as corrections officers administered nitrogen gas. Cecelia Trenticosta Kappel of the Center for Social Justice at Loyola University in New Orleans, confirmed that her organization will challenge the death warrant for Roy. “Seeking executions can only be meant to distract from the very real problems with the death penalty in Louisiana, which impacts not the worst of the worst, but those with mental illness, brain damage, devastating childhood trauma, and often all three,” Kappel said.
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