A. DALE BRYANT, PROMINENT EASTERN KY. ATTORNEY, DIES


A. Dale Bryant, whom many considered to have had one of the finest legal minds in Eastern Kentucky, died yesterday at Mayfair Manor Nursing & Convalescent Center in Lexington. He was 62.

Mr. Bryant, a semi-retired lawyer who was commonwealth's attorney for Wolfe, Powell and Breathitt counties from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, had heart bypass surgery in June and later suffered strokes. As commonwealth's attorney, Mr. Bryant prosecuted many high-profile murder cases and was sought out as a special prosecutor in cases from other areas.

He prosecuted Todd Ice, who received the death penalty in the 1978 stabbing death of 7-year-old Donna Knox at her Powell County home. The conviction was later overturned by the Kentucky Supreme Court, and Ice was retried and found guilty of manslaughter.

Mr. Bryant also prosecuted Karu Gene White, who received three death sentences in the beating deaths of Charles Gross, 75, his wife, Lula Gross, 74, and her brother, Sam Chaney, 79, at the grocery they operated in rural Breathitt County.

"He was the best and the smoothest I ever saw with a jury. I believed he could convince a jury to walk up on the roof of the courthouse and jump off. He was that persuasive," said Darrell Herald, who is now commonwealth's attorney for the region Mr. Bryant once served and who also had been a law partner of his. "He could size up a case. He could look at the facts and the evidence and immediately know what the trouble spots were, what the strong points were."

Mr. Bryant told the 1980 jury that sentenced Ice, then 16 years old, to death that Ice had a superior intellect and the mind of a killer and compared him to notorious mass murderers.

"Do you think Adolf Hitler could be rehabilitated? No. Charles Manson? Rehabilitation? No," he said to the jury before they began deliberating. "Todd Ice's personality has already been molded. The die has already been cast. There is no rehabilitation."

Mr. Bryant was in private practice after leaving the commonwealth's attorney's office. In 1995, he was appointed to serve in the post once again but resigned after only a month because of serious health problems.

Mr. Bryant was born in Wolfe County and grew up there. He received a bachelor's degree from Eastern Kentucky University and his law degree from the University of Kentucky. After law school he went into private practice, working primarily in Breathitt County.

He was chairman of the board of directors of the Marie R. and Ervine Turner Education Foundation and the Nim Henson Geriatric Center in Jackson. He was a founding director of Citizens Bank & Trust in Jackson. He was a member of Rogers Baptist Church.

Surviving are a daughter, Rebecca Dale Henson of Zachariah; a son, Charles Preston Bryant of Rogers; three sisters; a brother; and three grandchildren.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at Rogers Baptist Church. Visitation will be after 5 p.m. today at the church. Shackelford Funeral Home in Campton is in charge of arrangements.

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) - Saturday, January 8, 2000