Rodney Berget

SOUTH DAKOTA (USA): RODNEY SCOTT BERGET EXECUTED

October 30, 2018:

Rodney Scott Berget, 56, White, was executed on 29 October 2018.
Berget was sentenced to death on February 6, 2012 for his part in the killing of a prison guard during an unsuccessful escape attempt. Berget pleaded guilty to killing Ronald Johnson on April 12 2011. His accomplice, Eric Robert, also pleaded guilty in Johnson's death and was sentenced to death on Oct. 27, 2011. Robert volunteered for execution, and was executed on October 15, 2012. Berget was serving life sentences for attempted murder and kidnapping. He was first sent to the South Dakota State Penitentiary as a teenager for stealing a car.
Berget is the second person in his family to be executed. His older brother, Roger, was executed in Oklahoma in 2000 for the 1985 killing of a man. The execution of Berget, originally scheduled to be carried out at 1:30 p.m. CDT, was delayed for hours while the U.S. Supreme Court weighed a last-minute legal bid to block it. After the drug was administered, Berget groaned. He drifted off and snored briefly before his eyes closed. He was pronounced dead at 7:37 p.m. CDT.
Berget becomes the 1st person to be executed this year in South Dakota, the 4th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 2007, the 19th this year in the USA, and the 1,484th since the US resumed executions in 1977.