SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The Latest on the planned execution of South Dakota inmate Rodney Berget (all times local):
9:05 a.m.
South Dakota's attorney general says the state Supreme Court has rejected two motions to stop the execution of a man who killed a prison guard in a failed 2011 escape attempt.
Attorney General Marty Jackley says there are currently no court orders to stop or delay Berget's execution, which is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday. One motion was filed by a woman whose son is serving a life sentence, the other by an attorney without Berget's support.
Berget is to be put to death for the slaying of Ronald "R.J." Johnson. Berget and fellow inmate Eric Robert beat Johnson with a pipe and covered his head in plastic wrap.
Robert was executed in October 2012.
Berget in 2016 appealed his death sentence, but later asked to withdraw it.
___
12 a.m.
A man who killed a South Dakota prison guard in a failed 2011 escape is facing execution in what would be the state's fourth lethal injection since reinstating the death penalty in the late 1970s.
Rodney Berget is scheduled to die Monday for the slaying of Ronald "R.J." Johnson.
Berget and fellow inmate Eric Robert beat Johnson with a pipe and covered his head in plastic wrap. Robert was executed in October 2012.
South Dakota's last execution was later that month.
Berget in 2016 appealed his death sentence, but later asked to withdraw it. Berget wrote to a judge saying he worried the death penalty would be abolished and he feared spending "another 30 years in a cage."
Johnson's family plans to attend the 1:30 p.m. execution.
