Dalton Prejean was born on December 10, 1959, in Lafayette, Louisiana, as the second of four children. His early life was marked by instability and neglect. At just two weeks old, his parents sent him to live with an aunt and uncle in Houston, Texas. Unaware of his true parentage for the first eleven years of his life, Prejean’s world was shaken when his aunt revealed that she was not his biological mother. This revelation coincided with the breakdown of his family unit—his father left his mother and relocated to Houston—and it marked the beginning of a troubled adolescence.

After returning to live with his mother in Lafayette, Dalton’s behavior deteriorated. He began skipping school and, in March 1972, was committed to the Louisiana Training Institute for truancy. Over the next two years, he cycled in and out of juvenile institutions for offenses including burglary, theft, and firearm violations. His early encounters with the criminal justice system highlighted significant behavioral and psychological issues. In 1974, a psychiatric evaluation described him as intellectually limited, with poor judgment and borderline mental retardation. The psychiatrist warned that he posed a danger to himself and others and recommended long-term confinement.

That same year, Prejean was involved in his first fatal incident. He and two friends planned to rob a taxi driver, John Doucet. During the robbery, Dalton took the gun from an accomplice and shot Doucet twice, claiming he believed the driver was reaching for a weapon. He fled the scene but told a passerby to call for help and later turned himself in. Tried as a juvenile and adjudicated delinquent for first-degree murder, Prejean was confined to a juvenile facility. The court retained jurisdiction until his 21st birthday, but in December 1976—against psychiatric advice—he was released to the custody of his aunt in Houston without supervision or probation. Within seven months, he would commit another murder.

On the morning of July 2, 1977, 17-year-old Dalton Prejean, his brother Joseph, and two friends—Michael George and Michael Broussard—left Roger’s Nite Club in Lafayette Parish after a night of heavy drinking. Dalton, driving without a license, was behind the wheel of a 1966 Chevrolet with faulty taillights. Louisiana State Police Trooper Donald Cleveland, on his way to work, noticed the violation and pulled them over.

When the vehicle stopped, Dalton and his brother attempted to switch seats to conceal the fact that Dalton had been driving illegally. Trooper Cleveland noticed the maneuver and ordered all occupants out of the car. He instructed George and Broussard to re-enter the vehicle while he searched Joseph Prejean. During the pat-down, Dalton became agitated and stated, “I don’t like the way he’s doing my brother.” He retrieved a .38 caliber revolver from under the seat, exited the car, and approached Cleveland with the gun hidden by his leg. Without warning, he fired two shots, striking the trooper, who died instantly. Dalton and his companions fled but were captured within hours.

Prejean faced a capital murder charge for the killing of a police officer. Despite being a minor at the time of the crime and having a documented IQ of 76—corresponding to a mental age of 13 years and 6 months—he was indicted for first-degree murder. His trial was moved from Lafayette Parish to Ouachita Parish due to extensive media coverage. On May 4, 1978, a twelve-member jury convicted him and unanimously recommended the death penalty.

The case quickly became a flashpoint in debates over juvenile justice, racial bias, and the execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Prejean, a Black teenager, had been convicted by an all-white jury. His defense team emphasized his childhood abandonment, mental health diagnoses, and borderline intellectual functioning. Despite multiple appeals and stays of execution—including one granted by the U.S. Supreme Court in November 1989—the Court lifted the stay without comment on April 17, 1990.

Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, condemned the execution. The European Parliament called for commutation of his sentence, arguing that executing someone with his background and impairments violated international human rights standards. Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer, however, rejected the parole board’s recommendation for clemency, stating that the execution would proceed “on behalf of 780 state troopers, and thousands of police officers who put their lives on the line every day.” Dalton Prejean was executed by electric chair at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola on May 18, 1990, after spending nearly 13 years on death row.