Family members reflect on a state and federal judge’s 36-year legal career on the anniversary of his death

IDAHO FALLS – Paul Ezra Rhoades threw his chair toward the prosecutor as District Judge Larry Boyle sentenced him to death.

It was March 24, 1988 – two months after a jury found Rhoades guilty of murdering Idaho Falls special education teacher Susan Michelbacher a year earlier. Rhoades was linked to several other murders, but this was the first of several criminal trials overseen by Judge Boyle.

Boyle, then 44, of Pocatello, who died on Thanksgiving Day in 2017, was appointed as a 7th District judge in 1986 after working as a private attorney in Idaho Falls for more than a decade. The Rhoades trial would be one of his most memorable cases in that capacity before serving as a justice on the Idaho Supreme Court and later as a U.S. judge.

A detective with the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office caught the chair before meeting the prosecutor, South Idaho Press reported. Officers escorted Rhoades from the courtroom.

After years of appeals, Rhoades was finally executed by lethal injection on November 18, 2011.

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Shortly after Rhoades’ execution, Boyle, now retired, praised the appeals process.

“Given the burden of passing a sentence that would require the taking of a human life, even that of a man who committed such heinous and unspeakable crimes, I was pleased and truly relieved that my handling of these cases was so long ago and the weighty ones Decisions I made “The actions that needed to be taken were carefully and thoroughly considered and then confirmed at every step,” Boyle said, according to the Idaho Statesman. “The only good thing in all of this is the true majesty and beauty of the law, which guarantees due process to everyone, including a young man who committed such terrible crimes.”

Boyle’s early life

Boyle was born on June 23, 1943 to Thomas and Winona Boyle. His father worked as an FBI agent at the time. They had left Pearl Harbor two weeks before the attack in 1941 – which led to US involvement in World War II – before taking an assignment in Seattle, where Larry was born.

In an interview with EastIdahoNews.com, Beverly Boyle, Larry’s widow, says Thomas was originally from Preston and eventually moved to Pocatello to open a laundromat. That’s how Larry ended up in Idaho.

After graduating from Pocatello High School in 1961, Larry served a mission in Ireland for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was later drafted into the army during Vietnam. He never made it past boot camp due to a knee injury.

After returning home, Larry decided to pursue a career as a lawyer.

“My dad thought, ‘Wow, this kid needs some guidance,'” Beverly recalls with a laugh. “He talked to him and said, ‘You need to go to law school.'”

Beverly’s father, Ray Rigby, and his brother were lawyers. Larry previously earned a degree in economics from Brigham Young University, and Beverly says her family’s interest in law had a big impact on her husband’s life.

Larry graduated from the University of Idaho College of Law in Moscow in 1972 with a law degree.

He was a founding member of a law firm in Idaho Falls, where he practiced law until his appointment as district judge in 1986.

Larry’s son Brad remembers attending the trial of Paul Ezra Rhoades as his father sat on the bench during the trial.

“We sat right next to the jury box. Here I was a 12 year old child. I was probably too young, but Dad always liked to show us what the world was like. I remember seeing the pictures (of the murder victims). It was pretty cruel,” says Brad.

Later, Brad toured the prison and saw Rhoades reading the newspaper in his cell.

Boyle’s state and federal appointments

In 1989, Governor Cecil Andrus, a lifelong friend, appointed Larry to the Idaho Supreme Court. Beverly doesn’t recall any particularly notable instances in this role, but says Larry’s friendship with Andrus began with her father.

“Cecil Andrus served with my father in the Legislature. They were in minority leadership together,” Beverly says.

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Larry was the last person from Eastern Idaho to serve on the Supreme Court until the appointment of Greg Moeller in 2019.

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Larry’s tenure on the Supreme Court was short. In 1992, President George H. W. Bush selected him to be the U.S. Ninth District Judge for Idaho. His responsibilities in this role included training lawyers in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and other Middle Eastern countries.

Brad remembers a harrowing experience Larry had in Pakistan in 2011.

“Dad was staying in a hotel in Lahore. In the middle of the night, U.S. marshals burst through his door. “He was still wearing his underwear and one of them picked him up while two others grabbed everything from the dresser and closet and put him in the back of an armored car,” Brad recalls.

Larry later learned that the authorities were on the trail of Osama Bin Laden and Larry was in danger. They tried to send Larry home, but he refused to go because he was completely focused on his work.

Ultimately, Bin Laden was killed and Larry was sent home.

He retired as a judge in 2008.

A sitting judge serving as a juror

In 1999, Boyle had the rare experience of being selected to serve on a jury as a sitting judge. He spent ten weeks as one of a dozen jurors in a complex extortion case involving insurance executive Richard Hoyle. His friend Cecil Andrus was also on the jury.

After the case, Boyle told the Idaho Statesman about the challenges he faced as a juror.

“All these years I wanted to be a fly agaric to see how a jury really works,” he said at the time. “One of the conclusions I have come to from this new perspective is that being a juror is far more difficult than being a presiding judge.”

He told the Statesman it was a learning experience.

“A juror is completely at the mercy of the progression of the case,” Boyle said. “Instead of a single person making their own decision, we are sent into a small, cramped room with no air conditioning to make a decision as a committee. Furthermore, our decision must be unanimous.”

For several years before his death, Larry was bishop of an LDS ward for single young people. Beverly says it’s a position he’s been asked for multiple times over the years but was denied because of his role as a judge.

Finally having the chance to serve as a bishop was one of the greatest honors of his life, Beverly said.

Larry’s legacy

Larry was 74 years old when he passed away on November 23, 2017 from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

“We had a wonderful life together,” says Beverly. “He loved his children with all his heart. He was instrumental in our lives.”

Larry was a close lifelong friend of Stephen R. Covey and wrote a book with him in 2011. A passage he wrote in this book could serve as a tribute to his 36-year career as a lawyer.

“We deeply honor and respect those who dedicate themselves to the noble practice of law. You have the best opportunity to bring relief, creative solutions, peace and healing to people in a world full of conflict, strife and stubborn problems. The New Testament teaches: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they are called children of God.” “If ever there was a time when we needed peacemakers, it is today, and lawyers (and judges) are in the unique position to take on this role,” Larry wrote.