A convicted sex offender from Assumption Parish is believed to be the first person in the U.S. sentenced to undergo surgical castration without their consent, but the lawmaker who pushed for the severe punishment to be made available said it’s unlikely to ever take place.
The state corrections department has also confirmed its not currently staffed to handle the procedure.
Carrol Ray Clark (Assumption Parish Sheriff’s Office photo)
Carrol Ray Clark, 51, of Bayou L’Ourse pleaded guilty last week to second-degree rape, two counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile and two counts of possessing child pornography. He agreed to a 35-year prison sentence and to undergo surgical castration, according to District Attorney Ricky Babin’s office.
Clark’s charges stemmed from a 2024 investigation based on a tip that he had received and distributed online child pornography. Police interviewed people living in the same home as Clark and determined he had sexual contact with a young girl at the residence on multiple occasions.
A Sept. 1 post on the X account of Attorney General Liz Murrill, whose office started the investigation, celebrated Clark’s conviction and sentence.
“Louisiana justice served on another child rapist,” the post reads, followed by emojis of a fleur de lis and a pair of scissors.
Breaking: Louisiana justice served on another child rapist
Great job by DA Ricky Babin on the prosecution, my agents and the ICAC Task Force on the arrest, and Judge Jason Verdigets for imposing the sentence. pic.twitter.com/Ld1faoUlAH
Louisiana is the only state where surgical castration is a sentencing option for convicted sex offenders, whose testicles or ovaries are removed in the procedure. The law was approved in 2024 and only applies only to cases with victims younger than 13.
A spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Corrections, which is tasked with administering surgical castration under the law, confirmed it has never carried out the punishment.
Tyler Cavalier, Babin’s chief of staff and chief investigator, said in an interview that Clark’s sentence is the first time the new law is being used, and he anticipated the procedure would not occur immediately. It’s too early to declare that it will never take place, he added.
“I think it’s going to take some time for the kinks to be worked out,” Cavalier said.
Chemical castration, a reversible procedure administered through intravenous drugs, has been a punishment option for sex offenders in Louisiana since 2008. Cavalier said judges in his jurisdiction have included chemical castration in two recent sex offender convictions, though he added that neither sentence has been carried out.
In a chemical castration sentence, defendants can opt instead for surgical castration, but the timeline for carrying it out is vague. Both the 2008 and 2024 laws call for the punishment to be administered “not later than one week prior to the defendant’s release from prison.”
Brad Cascio, an assistant district attorney in the 23rd Judicial District, wants such sentences carried out sooner rather than later. In April 2024, he secured a guilty plea from Glenn Sullivan Sr. for multiple counts of second-degree rape involving a 14-year-old girl in Livingston Parish. Sullivan, now age 56, was sentenced to 50 years in prison and chose the surgical option when a judge ordered his chemical castration.
Cascio, who’s a candidate for the DA’s join in the Nov. 3 election, said in an interview the Sullivan case was the first time a sex offender has consented to surgical castration in Louisiana. Since then, he has obtained more convictions for sex offenders who have been sentenced to chemical castration, though he could only say it’s been “less than a dozen” when asked for a number.
Cascio said he wasn’t aware the 2008 chemical castration law existed until the Sullivan case two years ago.
“To be honest with you. I kind of stumbled across it, and I went to my boss and I said, ‘Do you mind if I start doing this?’ and he didn’t tell me no,” Cascio said.
Nine other states allow chemical castration, according to research from the National Council of State Legislatures. Some of these states offer surgery as an option to the drugs, but there are no sources that track whether anyone has made that choice or if it’s been executed.
The Louisiana Department of Corrections said it has no records of chemical castration being administered in the state.
State Rep. Delisha Boyd, D-New Orleans, shaped the 2024 surgical castration law and said in a text message Thursday that Clark’s procedure “will likely never happen” because of provisions in the statute.
It calls for a court-appointed medical expert to determine whether the offender is “an appropriate candidate” but doesn’t define what meets that standard. If the person chooses not to go through with the surgery, they can be sent back to prison for three to five years.
“[Clark] can simply refuse to have it done and [serve] a few more years of his sentence,” Boyd said.
Parole and early release are not available to persons convicted of second-degree rape in Louisiana, which means Clark would be at least 86 years old before he can get out of state prison.
Clark’s public defender, Phil Maples, did not respond to phone messages.
Cascio said the onus is on the Louisiana Department of Corrections to carry out surgical castration sentences that district attorneys and law enforcement work hard to obtain.
“This is no different than if you have an inmate that has appendicitis and has to have his appendix removed,” he said.
Falon Brown, press secretary for the corrections department, said via email there’s no one on staff or under contract with the agency to perform surgical castrations.
The attorney general’s office has not responded to an email, calls or texts asking whether Murrill was aware the state is currently not staffed to carry out a surgical castration.
Should state officials move to employ a surgeon, they could encounter moral objections. The American Medical Association officially opposes chemical castration. While it has no policy specific to surgical castration, the AMA approves of doctors performing court-ordered procedures “only if the procedure being mandated is therapeutically efficacious and is therefore undoubtedly not a form of punishment or solely a mechanism of social control.”
Castration as a punitive measure has drawn criticism from criminal defense lawyers who argue it violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Lisa Wayne, executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said in an email the consent aspects of Louisiana’s castration laws also raise ethical concerns. There is also no proof that castration acts as a deterrent to sex offenders, she added.
“There is no solid evidence that castration outperforms existing options. It is untested and politically driven, punitive punishment, rather than evidence-based,” Wayne said.
