Rodney Scott Berget was born on May 15, 1962, in South Dakota. He was one of six children in a poor farming family that struggled to survive. The family’s farm eventually failed, forcing them to relocate to Aberdeen. His parents, Benford and Rosemary Berget, divorced in the 1970s. Before the separation, Rodney and his siblings endured severe abuse at the hands of their father, who also turned to alcoholism. This turbulent childhood, marked by instability and violence, shaped much of Berget’s later behavior.

As a teenager, Berget’s life began to spiral into crime. His early offenses included theft, which resulted in his first prison sentence while still in his youth. By age 25, he was incarcerated for grand theft and attempted escape. In 1987, Berget and five other inmates broke out of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, but he was recaptured after a month on the run.

On April 12, 2011, Ronald “R.J.” Johnson, a 63-year-old veteran officer nearing retirement, was supervising inmates at Pheasantland Industries, a prison workshop in Sioux Falls. That morning, Berget and fellow inmate Eric Robert ambushed him in a planned escape attempt. Using a metal pipe and plastic wrap supplied by another inmate, Michael Nordman, they bludgeoned Johnson and suffocated him. His autopsy revealed multiple skull fractures and defensive injuries, showing he fought for his life.

After the murder, Berget hid inside a box on a cart while Robert disguised himself in Johnson’s uniform. Together, they tried to exit the facility through the West Gate. Their plan unraveled when a guard noticed Robert had not swiped an ID card. After a confrontation, Berget jumped from the box to attack, but both men were quickly overpowered by corrections officers. Johnson’s body was discovered later inside the workshop.

Berget and Robert were both charged with first-degree murder, while Nordman, who provided the weapons, received a life sentence after pleading guilty. Robert pleaded guilty and requested execution, which was carried out in 2012. Berget, however, initially pursued appeals. On February 6, 2012, Judge Bradley Zell sentenced him to death. The decision was briefly overturned in 2013 on procedural grounds, but after a re-sentencing hearing in May of that year, the death penalty was reinstated.

Berget appealed again to both the South Dakota and U.S. Supreme Courts, but all appeals were denied. In 2016, he signaled that he no longer wished to delay his execution, telling courts that he would rather die than face decades in prison under a life sentence. His legal team continued to argue that he had intellectual disabilities, but Berget himself rejected further interventions.

On October 29, 2018, Berget was executed by lethal injection at the South Dakota State Penitentiary, six years after Eric Robert. He ordered a large breakfast-style last meal that included pancakes, waffles, eggs, sausages, fries, Pepsi, and licorice. Before the pentobarbital injection, he joked, “Sorry for the delay, I got caught in traffic.” He was pronounced dead at 7:37 p.m.