
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 18, 1990                   TAG: 9005180768
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/10   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ANGOLA, LA.                                LENGTH: Short

LOUISIANA EXECUTES KILLER

A two-time killer went to his death in the Louisiana electric chair today despite worldwide protests that he was dying for a crime he committed as a brain-damaged teen-ager.

In a rambling, barely audible final statement, Dalton Prejean said his death would serve no purpose.

"One mistake . . . 13 years ago, and that's a long time," he said. "Nothing is going to be accomplished. I have peace with myself."

Prejean, 30, was condemned for the 1977 murder of Donald Cleveland, a Louisiana state trooper who was shot in the face when he stopped Prejean for driving with a broken tail light.

"To the Cleveland family, they say it wasn't for the revenge, but it's hard for me to see, to understand," Prejean said. "I hope they're happy."

When Prejean was 14, he shot and killed a taxi driver; for that, he spent 30 months in reform school. He was released without supervision, and six months later he shot Cleveland.

Prejean was the first to die under the Supreme Court's ruling last year that allowed the death penalty for crimes committed by 16- and 17- year olds.

by CNB