Court Stays Louisiana Execution

Convicted killer Dalton Prejean won a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court of his scheduled midnight execution after spending Wednesday in the state prison’s death house.

Prejean, 10 days shy of his 30th birthday, had been scheduled to die in the electric chair for a murder he committed as a teen-ager.

But the Supreme Court granted Prejean’s emergency plea, barring his execution until the justices decide whether they will hear his formal appeal to set aside his death penalty.

Prejean was 17 when he shot State Trooper Donald Cleveland in 1977 after being stopped for driving with a broken tail light. Prejean had been freed six months earlier from a juvenile detention center where he served time for killing a taxi driver when he was 14.

Prejean would have been the first person executed under the Supreme Court’s ruling in June that authorizes executions of people who commit capital crimes while they were 16 or 17.

His lawyer argued that Prejean should be spared because he is retarded, with an IQ of 76, and because of his age at the time of the crime. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal Tuesday, saying he is not retarded under standards of the American Assn. on Mental Retardation, which sets a 70 threshold.