Executed inmate is 2nd in family put to death
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Rodney Berget, convicted of killing a prison guard in a foiled escape from the South Dakota State Penitentiary, was executed by lethal injection Monday after a delay of several hours.
Berget was sentenced to death for the 2011 killing of correctional officer Ron RJ Johnson during a failed prison escape attempt. Berget had been serving a life sentence for an attempted murder and kidnapping conviction.
The execution came after six years of court delays and debates over his intellectual capabilities, plus five hours of delays Monday.
“The execution of inmate Rodney Berget was carried out in accordance with state law,” DOC spokesman Michael Winder said.
“He (Berget) chose to be evil,” Ronald Johnson’s daughter said. “We choose as a family to be better.”
The other inmate who triedattempted to escape the prison, Eric Robert, was executed in 2012 after pleading guilty to the murder. Michael Nordman was sentenced to life in prison for providing the plastic wrap and pipe used in the killing.
The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the lethal injection for Berget, 56, after seven years on the state’s death row.
The execution is the state’s fourth since reinstating the death penalty in 1979.
Chicago-based lawyer Juliet Yackel argued that Berget is intellectually disabled. The state Supreme Court had denied a motion from Yackel arguing that Berget lacks the intellectual capacity to receive capital punishment.
Berget, who is the second member of his family to be sentenced to death, had filed an affidavit over the weekend saying he told Yackel not to pursue an appeal. In 2000, Berget’s older brother Roger was executed in Oklahoma after being convicted in 1987 of killing a man to steal his car.
The Bergets are not the first pair of siblings to be condemned. In at least three cases, brothers who conspired to commit crimes both have received the death penalty. But Rodney and Roger Berget stand out because their crimes were separated by more than 600 miles and 25 years.
“To have it in different states in different crimes is some sort of commentary on the family there,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center which tracks death penalty trends, said in 2012.
On Monday outside the state penitentiary, the execution’s delay was met with mixed reaction. Death penalty protesters saw signs of hope while capital punishment proponents bristled at the legal maneuvers.
“Unbelievable,” a supporter of Berget’s execution yelled as another supporter held up a cellphone, showing her the news that the execution was on hold.