S.D. Supreme Court overturns Rodney Berget's death sentence - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

S.D. Supreme Court overturns Rodney Berget's death sentence

Posted:
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -

The South Dakota Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence for an inmate convicted in the killing of a prison guard in Sioux Falls.

Justices say Rodney Berget must get a new sentencing hearing because the circuit judge who sentenced him to die improperly considered statements Berget made to a psychiatrist.

Berget and another inmate, Eric Robert, pleaded guilty to killing prison guard Ronald Johnson during a failed escape attempt in April 2011 at the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.  Robert was executed by lethal injection in October.  Berget appealed his death sentence.

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