Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill will seek to overturn Roper at the United States Supreme Court by moving to reinstate the death sentence for convicted killer Dale Dwayne Craig, who was one week shy of his eighteenth birthday when the crime took place.

On September 14, 1992, Dale Dwayne Craig brutally murdered Kipp E. Gullet, an 18-year-old freshman student at Louisiana State University. Following his theft of Kipp’s Bronco and a period of psychological torture, Craig marched Kipp at gunpoint into “a secluded construction site.” There, Craig struck him with the gun, causing Kipp to fall to the ground “in a fetal position.” As Kipp lay there, Craig “knelt at his side and fired three bullets through his head, killing him.” After a trial in 1994, the jury found Craig guilty of first-degree murder and “unanimously determined that [he] should receive the death sentence, which the district judge thereafter imposed.”

"The Supreme Court’s decision in Roper v. Simmons is egregiously wrong. It prohibits States like Louisiana from executing criminals like Dale Craig - who carjacked, kidnapped, terrorized, pistol-whipped and then shot to death Kip Earl Gullett, an unsuspecting LSU freshman - just because he was a week away from his 18th birthday when he committed this heinous crime. There is no basis in law or logic for that absurd result." - Attorney General Liz Murrill

Our motion to reinstate the death sentence reads in part:  

"The State of Louisiana respectfully moves to reinstate Defendant Dale Craig’s death sentence for the reasons outlined in the below memorandum of law in support. The State recognizes, however, that current U.S. Supreme Court precedent requires this Court to deny this motion. Accordingly, the State submits this motion for preservation purposes only and asks the Court to summarily dispose of it under binding U.S. Supreme Court precedent."

Click here to read our motion.

Recent mugshot of Dale Craig from Louisiana Department of Corrections.