SOUTH DAKOTA (USA): ERIC ROBERT EXECUTED FOR BEATING TO DEATH PRISON GUARD WITH PIPE DURING BOTCHED ESCAPE

Eric Robert, 50, white, was executed.
It is South Dakota's 1st execution in 5 years, and only the 2nd in 60 years. Robert pleaded guilty in the April 12, 2011, slaying of Ronald Johnson, 60, a prison guard, during a failed escape attempt. Robert was serving an 80-year sentence for a kidnapping conviction when he and fellow inmate Rodney Berget, 50, tried to escape from a Sioux Falls prison.
Robert never appealed his sentence and even tried to bypass a mandatory state review in hopes of expediting his death.
Robert becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death in South Dakota this year and the 2nd since the state resumed capital punishment in 2007, the 32nd to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1309th overall since the nation resumed executions in 1977.