Darryl Vernon Richley was born on April 12, 1951, in the United States. Little is known or documented publicly about his early life, family, or education. At the time of his criminal offense, Richley was a 30-year-old adult with a criminal record. Prior to the capital crime that ultimately led to his execution, he had been involved in at least two instances of aggravated robbery, which demonstrated a pattern of violent behavior driven by financial motives or desperation.

He came to be known to law enforcement in Arkansas due to his participation in a robbery that turned fatal in 1981. Unlike many individuals on death row who have a trail of personal trauma, abuse, or documented mental illness in their backgrounds, there is little evidence in the public record to suggest that Richley’s upbringing was especially turbulent. However, his criminal acts in adulthood, including armed robbery and murder, marked a dangerous turn in his life trajectory that would end with the harshest legal penalty.

His time on death row, held at the Cummins Unit in Lincoln County, Arkansas, spanned over a decade. During that time, Richley pursued a series of legal appeals, as is common for inmates sentenced to death. He did not attract significant media attention, nor was there widespread public controversy surrounding his guilt.

The crime for which Darryl Vernon Richley was executed occurred on May 6, 1981, during a robbery at a fast-food restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas. Richley and an accomplice entered the establishment with the intent to commit armed robbery. During the course of the robbery, Richley fatally shot Carl L. Boren, an off-duty police officer who was working a second job as a security guard at the restaurant.

The killing of Officer Boren, who was attempting to protect the employees and customers inside, escalated the robbery into a capital offense. Witnesses stated that Boren did not draw his weapon and posed no immediate threat at the time of the shooting. The murder was described as deliberate and unnecessary. The crime shocked the local community, particularly because the victim was a law enforcement officer well known in the area.

Richley was arrested within days of the murder and formally charged with capital murder and two counts of aggravated robbery. His trial was held in 1982, and prosecutors sought the death penalty due to the nature of the crime — the murder of a police officer in the line of duty. Richley was convicted and sentenced to death by lethal injection. His appeals process continued through the 1980s and into the early 1990s but was ultimately unsuccessful.

After 13 years on death row, Darryl Vernon Richley was executed by lethal injection on August 3, 1994, at the Cummins Unit in Arkansas. He declined to make a final statement. His execution marked the state's continued enforcement of capital punishment for those convicted of murdering law enforcement personnel. While his name did not become nationally recognized, his case is referenced within Arkansas criminal justice history as part of the wave of executions in the 1990s following re-implementation of the death penalty in the United States.