Who Is Rodney Berget? South Dakota's First Prisoner Execution Since 2012

A 56-year-old man who killed a prison guard in a failed escape attempt from a South Dakota prison in 2011 will be executed Monday afternoon, reports said.

Rodney Berget will be put to death by lethal injection for the death of Ronald "R.J." Johnson. The prison guard was beaten with a pipe and had his head covered in plastic wrap at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, which ultimately resulted in his death.

Reports said the execution will be the fourth since the death penalty was reinstated in the state in the late 1970s. It will also be the first death penalty in South Dakota since 2012.

Berget admitted to having a role in the crime. Johnson was attacked by Berget and another inmate, Eric Robert, on April 12, 2011, which was also coincidentally Johnson's 63rd birthday. The crime unfolded in a part of the facility known as Pheasantland Industries, a place where inmates work on upholstery, signs, furniture and other projects.

After the duo beat up Johnson, they took his clothes and left his body at the scene. Robert put on Johnson's attire, including his pants, hat, and jacket. He then proceeded to push a cart loaded with two boxes toward the exit. Berget was hiding in one of the boxes. The duo made it through one gate at the facility but was stopped at another gate by a guard.

Robert was executed for the crime on Oct. 15, 2012. The last execution in South Dakota was on Oct. 30, 2012.

Berget, whose case was slowed down due to his mental status and death penalty eligibility, appealed his sentence in 2016, a report in Washington Post said. He later asked to withdraw the appeal, going against his lawyer’s advice. He said he didn’t want to make his family suffer any more. Reports said Berget had a son and grandchildren. According to him, they were being harassed in court and online.

In a letter to the judge, Berget said he thought his death penalty eventually would be overturned, but he couldn't imagine spending "another 30 years in a cage doing a life sentence."

Gov. Dennis Daugaard, on Friday, said he had no plans to block the execution. A challenge to the state’s method of execution was rejected by the state Supreme Court, but a second one was pending which argued that Berget did not have the intellectual capacity to be executed.

The chief justice of the state Supreme Court and the governor’s office, after confirming with the attorney general’s office, told local daily Argus Leader that no last-minute appeals or stays have been made against the execution. The general details of the execution by legal injection were laid out in DOC policy.

The execution, which is scheduled for 1.30 p.m. local time (2.30 p.m. EDT), will be witnessed by a number of people, including Attorney General Marty Jackley, Bradley Zell, the judge who convicted Berget, Minnehaha County State's Attorney Aaron McGowan, Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead, member of the news media, representatives of the victim, and a number of citizens, which will be determined by the warden. Reports said Johnson’s family is also planning to witness it.

Berget first entered state prison on Jan. 12, 1984 for a case of grand theft. He walked away from a minimum security prison in July 1984 and was brought back to prison in August the same year. He escaped from the penitentiary’s recreation building with five other prisoners in May 1987, but was re-captured and brought back in July 1987.

He remained in prison until 2002, when he was paroled in March the same year. He tried to escape again while officials were moving him from the prison, but he was immediately caught, a report in Keloland Media Group said.

Berget had an older brother, Roger, who was convicted in a 1987 killing of a man for his car. He was executed after 13 years in prison in 2000.

In 2003, Berget was caught again for allegedly shooting two people, and kidnapping a clerk from a convenience store. Reports said the 20-year-old clerk, who was raped, escaped from his custody before the police caught him. He received a life sentence for each of the crimes.