[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----SOUTH DAKOTA

[Rick Halperin]

October 29



SOUTH DAKOTA:

South Dakota execution delayed for hours past scheduled time


A South Dakota inmate and the family of the prison guard he killed in a failed 
escape 7 years ago waited Monday for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether 
his execution should be halted, deliberations that delayed Rodney Berget’s 
death for at least a few hours past his scheduled execution time.

Berget, 56, is to be 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 will be the state’s 
first execution since 2012 and just its fourth since reinstating the death 
penalty in 1979.

Berget was serving a life sentence for attempted murder and kidnapping when he 
and inmate Eric Robert attacked Johnson on April 12, 2011 — Johnson’s 63rd 
birthday — in a part of the penitentiary known as Pheasantland Industries, 
where inmates work on upholstery, signs, furniture and other projects. Berget 
has admitted to his role in the slaying.

After Johnson was beaten with a pipe, the two inmates wrapped the guard’s head 
in plastic and left him for dead. 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 through one gate but were stopped by another guard before 
they could complete their escape through a second gate.

Robert was executed on Oct. 15, 2012, weeks before the state’s last execution.

Berget’s mental status and death penalty eligibility slowed his case. Berget in 
2016 appealed his death sentence, but later asked to withdraw the appeal 
against his lawyers’ advice. Berget wrote to a judge saying he thought the 
death penalty eventually would be overturned and that he couldn’t imagine 
spending “another 30 years in a cage doing a life sentence.”

Gov. Dennis Daugaard has said he had no plans to block the execution. The state 
Supreme Court rejected two motions seeking to stop the execution, one filed by 
a woman whose son is serving a life sentence and the other by an attorney 
without Berget’s support. The attorney later petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court 
to stay Berget’s execution, saying that he’s intellectually disabled and 
therefore ineligible for the death penalty.

Johnson’s family planned to witness the execution, which was scheduled for 1:30 
p.m. but was delayed as the state waited for direction from the Supreme Court. 
Berget had a last meal Sunday evening that included pancakes, waffles, 
breakfast sausage, scrambled eggs, french fries, Pepsi and Cherry Nibs 
licorice.

Johnson’s widow, Lynette Johnson, sized down R.J.’s wedding ring and now wears 
it next to her own; she keeps his watch — its hands frozen at the time he was 
attacked — in a clear case next to photos above her fireplace.

“He was so kind,” she told the Argus Leader . “He didn’t have a bad word to say 
about anybody.”

The Department of Corrections has said it plans to use a single drug. Its 
policy calls for either sodium thiopental or pentobarbital. Pentobarbital was 
used in its last two executions.

South Dakota has not had issues with obtaining the drugs it needs, as some 
other states have, perhaps because the state shrouds some details in secrecy. 
Lawmakers in 2013 approved hiding the identities of its suppliers.

After the execution, witnesses and others will meet with media at a guard 
training academy that was named for Johnson. It was dedicated one year after 
his death.

Berget will be the second member of his family to be executed. His older 
brother, Roger, was executed in Oklahoma in 2000 for killing a man to steal his 
car.

Opponents of the death penalty gathered for a vigil outside the South Dakota 
prison, some joining in a circle and singing. Sioux Falls resident Elaine 
Engelgau, 62, who sat behind a sign attached to a cross reading: “JESUS: HE 
WITHOUT SIN, CAST THE FIRST STONE,” said she was praying that the execution 
would be halted.

Scott Johnson told the Argus Leader that he didn’t know R.J. Johnson, but stood 
across the street in support of the death penalty. Scott Johnson said a 
prisoner in the penitentiary killed his sister and was sentenced to life 
without parole.

“I know there’s two sides to everything, but I don’t understand their side at 
all,” he said.

(source: Associated Press)