First Execution in Five Years Ordered in South Dakota

08/27/12

On Friday, South Dakota officials said that an inmate, who killed a prison guard while trying to escape, has been ordered to die by administering lethal injection in October.

In South Dakota, there have been only 16 executions since 1877. Fourteen of them occurred by hanging and were done and over with by 1913.

In the last 99 years there have been only two executions – one by electrocution in 1946 and another by lethal injection in 2007. It is the tradition of the state to avoid ordering death penalties under ordinary circumstances. But in the present case, the judiciary had no alternative as the convict himself sought execution and waived his right to a jury to decide whether a death penalty should be imposed or not.

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Eric Robert, the convict had been serving an 80-year term for the kidnapping of a young woman in 2005. In 2011, he tried to escape the prison along with another inmate, Rodney Berget. During their escape attempt, the duo assaulted prison guard Ronald Johnson at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.

They beat Johnson with a lead pipe and fractured his skull in at least three places causing part of his brain being exposed. Then, they wrapped the head of the guard in plastic and robbed his clothes.

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Robert dressed up in the murdered prison guard's clothes and tried to complete the escape attempt along with Berget. In the process, they assaulted another guard, but were ultimately stopped inside the prison.

Subsequently, Robert pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of the prison guard Ronald Johnson, and sought execution waiving his rights to a jury. Thereafter, South Dakota Circuit Court Judge Bradley Zell issued warrant for the execution set to be carried out anytime from Oct. 14 through Oct. 20. The final time and date for the execution, under South Dakota law would be set by the warden at the state penitentiary and would be announced within 48 hours of the actual date of the execution.

Last week, the South Dakota Supreme Court upheld the death penalty, also clarifying that Robert's consistent attempts to seek execution did not have any influence upon the ruling.

The other accused, Berget, has also pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to death according to information from the South Dakota attorney general's office.

When carried out, Robert's execution would be the first in South Dakota in the last five years.