Summary:
Fifty-six-year-old Rodney Berget was convicted in 2011 for killing a corrections officer during his attempted escape out of South Dakota State Penitentiary and was later executed Monday afternoon. Berget had been serving time for a life sentence for attempted murder and kidnapping conviction. Rodney also had a brother, Roger, who was executed in 2000, was convicted in 1987 for killing a man to steal his car. The daughter of deceased prison guard Ron RJ Johnson said, "Berget chose to be evil, we chose as a family to be better." Lawyer Juliet Yackel tried to contest Rodney's execution by saying that he is intellectually disabled. However, Rodney sent an affidavit that told Yackel that he wanted to accept his punishment and refused to see Yackel when she tried to visit on October 2nd. Yackel said, "Berget needs to partially redeem himself in the public eye and the minds of his family by accepting his punishment." Rodney also said in 2011, "I knew what I was doing, and I continued to do it. I destroyed a family. I took away a father, a husband, a grandpa."
Analysis:
I think that its hard to know what to feel when you hear something like this because good people do bad things and bad people do good things. Rodney was a bad person but he did a good thing, and by accepting his punishment, he shows respect and and acknowledgment to the people who lost somebody amazing.
Sources
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/29/rodney-berget-south-dakota-execution/1813862002/
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