Louisiana’s chief legal officer has asked the state Supreme Court to create a standard that would expedite the executions of five death row inmates.
According to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murill, the appeals processes of the five inmates — Larry Roy, Antoinette Frank, Robert Miller, David Bowie, and Marcus Reed — have been extended for far too long, denying justice to the families of the victims.
Murill has filed writs in hopes that the Louisiana Supreme Court will “develop[s] clear standards for post-conviction relief cases when an applicant waited decades to pursue relief, the relief was optional, and the state is substantially prejudiced by the delay.”
She wants these standards developed so that district courts can “apply the law uniformly across the state,” claiming that some have “created special non-legislatively sanctioned exceptions in capital cases.”
Murill believes that the standards will help the courts “move these cases efficiently and expeditiously.”
While each of the five individuals has been convicted, sentenced, and subjected to appellate review, a continued relief procedure “offers a convicted offender another opportunity to test constitutional defects in the conviction,” which Murill notes is not required.
The attorney general, who was elected in 2023, considers the standstill unacceptable.
“As I have repeatedly stated, the families of these victims deserve justice,” she said in a statement. “It is shameful that they have to wait decades for justice to be served. It has no valid purpose.
I promised the citizens of Louisiana that we would finally put victims first. I will keep that promise.
I’m hopeful that the Louisiana Supreme Court will grant review to provide clear direction to lower courts, allowing us to finally move these cases forward.
The attorney general has filed writs in the cases of Roy and Frank.
All five inmates were convicted of murder.
Roy, also known as the “Cheneyville Slasher,” was convicted of attacking his ex-girlfriend’s family, murdering her ex-husband, with whom she had reportedly reconciled, and her aunt in 1993.
Frank, a New Orleans police officer, murdered her partner and the two owners of a restaurant she was robbing in 1995.
Miller raped, robbed, and murdered his landlord in 1997, while Bowie murdered a man he had lost money to in 1996.
Reed’s was the only case that began this century; he was convicted of murdering three brothers in 2010. Miller’s writ was due Monday, while Bowie and Reed’s writs are due June 30.
Louisiana reinstated the death penalty after a 15-year hiatus in March, when Jessie Hoffman was executed.
Hoffman, who was convicted of kidnapping, rape, and murder in 1996, was the state’s first person to be killed with nitrogen gas.
