This week in 1990

“One mistake…13 years ago, and that’s a long time. Nothing is going to be accomplished. I have peace with myself…To the Cleveland family, they say it wasn’t for the revenge, but it’s hard for me to see, to understand. I hope they’re happy.”

— Dalton Prejean, convicted of murder, electric chair, Louisiana.
Executed May 18, 1990

At age fourteen, Prejean shot and killed a taxi driver, a crime for which he was sent to reform school for two and half years. Just six months after his release, he shot Louisiana state trooper Donald Cleveland in the face after the officer pulled him over for a broken tail light. Amnesty International claimed that Prejean, an African American, had not received a fair trial from an all-white jury.

Supporters said that he had suffered brain damage from an abusive aunt and had an IQ of 71.