S. Dakota executes inmate for beating, killing guard
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A South Dakota inmate was executed Monday for killing a prison guard in a failed escape seven years ago. It was the state’s first execution since 2012.
Rodney Berget, 56, was put to death for the 2011 slaying of Ronald “R.J.” Johnson, who was beaten with a pipe and had his head covered in plastic wrap at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. It was the state’s fourth execution since it reinstituted the death penalty in the late 1970s.
Berget was serving a life sentence for attempted murder and kidnapping when he and another inmate, Eric Robert, attacked Johnson on April 12, 2011, in a part of the penitentiary known as Pheasantland Industries, where inmates work on upholstery, signs, furniture and other projects. After Johnson was beaten, Robert put on Johnson’s pants, hat and jacket and pushed a cart loaded with two boxes, one with Berget inside, toward the exits. They made it outside one gate but were stopped by another guard before they could complete their escape through a second gate. Berget admitted to his role in the slaying.
Robert was executed on Oct. 15, 2012. Another inmate was executed 15 days later.
Johnson was slain on his 63rd birthday and as he was nearing the end of a nearly 24-year career as a guard.
The Department of Corrections planned to use a single drug. Policy calls for either sodium thiopental or pentobarbital. Pentobarbital was used in the state’s last two executions.
South Dakota has not had issues with obtaining the drugs it needs, as Nevada and some other states have, perhaps because the state shrouds some details in secrecy. Lawmakers in 2013 approved hiding the identities of its suppliers.