State argues to revoke parole eligibility for Kipp Gullett’s killer

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More than three decades ago, four Baton Rouge teenagers carjacked, kidnapped, terrorized and pistol-whipped LSU freshman Kipp Earl Gullett before Dale Dwayne Craig killed the student execution style. Craig was a week shy of his 18th birthday when he committed the murder in September 1992.

Craig had spent 28 years behind bars by the time District Judge Eboni Johnson Rose vacated his life without the possibility of parole sentence and granted him parole eligibility two years ago.

Johnson Rose found evidence that Craig had “grown, matured and been rehabilitated during his prison term” and ruled he was not among the rarest group of juvenile offenders classified as “permanently incorrigible” under federal laws that designate which child killers should be mandated to life terms.

The Louisiana Attorney General’s office challenged Johnson Rose, saying she erred in her decision to give Craig a shot at a parole board hearing. And on Tuesday, the state advanced its arguments to keep Craig confined to prison during a hearing in front of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

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Now Craig is four weeks shy of his 51st birthday. He has spent the past 33 years of his life serving time in jails and prisons.

Chief Justice John Weimer surmised that during two days of testimony before Judge Johnson Rose, the state offered no rebuttal to evidence that Craig has made a "transformation" over his years in lockup. The Attorney General's Office relied more heavily on the gruesome nature of the crime in arguing that he should never have a chance at being released from prison.

"All he's got is a parole opportunity. It doesn't necessarily mean he's going anywhere," Weimer said during Tuesday's hearing. "His character, apparently, has changed. His character is not frozen to when he committed this crime at 17. It continues to change."

John Landis, Craig's court-appointed post-conviction attorney of the past 28 years, described the prisoner as a "mature 50-year-old man who is humble, thoughtful, remorseful, peaceful and generous." He argued that the rehabilitation of former juvenile killers is a relevant factor for courts to consider.

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