Craig's age was not a major piece of information when he was sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of Kipp Earl Gullet, but it has evolved into a huge fact now that the U.S. Supreme Court has banned the execution of juveniles.

Craig is one of four people who were on death row in Louisiana for crimes they were convicted of committing before they were 18, and the only one from East Baton Rouge Parish.

The others were convicted of crimes committed in Alexandria, Shreveport and Jefferson Parish.

The Supreme Court decision in March effectively turned Craig's death sentence to life in prison. On Friday, state District Judge Bonnie Jackson formally resentenced Craig to life. Craig, 29, did not appear for the brief, minute-long hearing.

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Because Craig was 17 at the time he fired shots into Gullett's head while stealing his Bronco in September 1992, he no longer is eligible for the death penalty.

Prosecutor Tom Walsh, now an assistant district attorney in Rapides Parish, said during a telephone interview Friday that this case is an example of how the U.S. Supreme Court is "eroding the death penalty, issue by issue."

"It's disappointing to say the least," said Walsh, who prosecuted Craig in Baton Rouge.

Walsh said Craig was a gang member, a gun runner and "was a leader of bad people."

He said that before the trial began, Craig tried to escape from prison and attempted to kill a guard. After his conviction, he tried to escape from death row at Angola.

"This guy was evil and he had all of his mental faculties," the prosecutor said.

In Louisiana, before a jury can decide to recommend the death penalty, jurors are required to consider a list of "mitigating" factors.

If proven, those factors can work in the defendant's favor and get the jury to lean toward a life sentence.

The youth of a defendant is one of those mitigating factors. Walsh said the jury in Craig's case considered his age, but still opted for the death penalty.

"It basically invades the province of a jury," Walsh said of the Supreme Court ruling.

Defense attorney Mark Upton, one of Craig's attorneys, remembers his client as being immature, but not evil. He said the Gullet case was Craig's first criminal offense as an adult.

"This was a case in which it was clear (Craig) was not functioning anywhere near the maturity level of an adult," Upton said. "Most adolescents don't have the ability to adequately weigh the consequences of their actions."

Upton also said that going forward with Craig's execution would not have stopped other 17-year-olds from doing "stupid things" in the future.

"I've represented lots worse than Dale Dwayne Craig," Upton said.

Craig and three others abducted Gullett, of Pineville, from a parking lot outside LSU's Kirby Smith Hall. Craig wanted Gullett's truck because he needed to see his girlfriend and future wife, Nicole Craig, in Walker.

Gullett, an 18-year-old LSU freshman, was taken to an isolated construction site along South Kenilworth Parkway, and forced out of his Ford Bronco. James "Jughead" Lavigne, one of the men who helped abduct Gullet, bashed Gullet's head with the butt of a pistol. As Gullet lay moaning on the ground, Craig fired three shots into his head.

In 1995, a jury convicted Lavigne of second-degree murder and he received a mandatory life sentence. Two other co-defendants, Roy Maurer and Zebbie Berthelot, accepted plea deals in 1995 in exchange for their testimony against Craig. The plea deal allowed Maurer and Berthelot to plead guilty to manslaughter, and both received 20-year sentences.

Gullet's mother, Georgiann, said in March, when the Supreme Court issued the ruling, that society has a responsibility to prevent Craig from killing others.

"For me, the issue is not whether people like Dale Craig live or die," she said. "The real issue is making sure they are never allowed on the streets again. If we allow that to happen, then we are all accountable if and when they kill again."