PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley says Judge Bradley Zell has approved his request to schedule a mid-October execution for a State Penitentiary inmate who killed a prison guard.
Fifty-year-old Eric Robert is to be put to death by lethal injection the week of Oct. 14. The exact date and time will be chosen by the prison warden.
Robert pleaded guilty to killing guard Ron Johnson during a failed escape attempt last year and asked to be put to death. The Supreme Court last week unanimously upheld his death sentence.
A second inmate involved in the escape attempt also has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to death, but is appealing. A third inmate was given life in prison.