Circuit Court Judge Rules Berget Does Not Have an Intellectual Disability
PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today that 2nd Circuit Court Judge Douglas Hoffman has ruled that death row inmate Rodney Berget does not have an intellectual disability and has dismissed all of his claims challenging the validity of his sentence.
“The Court found that the factual record demonstrates that Berget was a leader and not a follower, recognizing he has a highly developed planning, reasoning and problem solving ability,” said Jackley. “The State can now proceed with obtaining justice for Ronald ‘RJ’ Johnson and his family.”
The matter will be remanded back to the sentencing court where the State will seek a warrant of execution.
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I thought Mr. Jackley was pro-life. Guess not.
There is a difference between innocent death v guilty death. I am glad Marty supports the death penalty. This killer needs to die before he kills someone else.
I agree.. innocent death is where the baby never had a choice , never hurt anyone, etc vs. someone made a choice in life to kill another person and thus forfeited their life.
As I understand it the Defendant was already in prison and killed a guard seeking to escape…
The Pope doesn’t think there’s any difference. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops doesn’t thing there’s any difference. Isn’t Mr. Jackley a practicing Roman Catholic? I s’pose it’s just like everything else… follow those parts you like, and screw the rest. Just another hypocrite pandering for power.
Actually, if you’ve read the CCC you know that’s not an acurate statement. Give me your email and I’ll send you the pages that discuss capitol punishment and it’s moral limitis. A lifer who is determined to kill creates a moral dilemma that the catechism addresses, if you care about theology
Your simplistic view of what is pro-life shows you are no deep thinker. There is a difference between punishment for a heinous crime and murdering a child in the womb or, if you are hyper-pro-abortion, killing it while it is coming out of the womb. I understand you are a disciple of the far left, so I realize that you don’t give any thought to issues but simply regurgitate what your dark masters spew forth.
Ike,
Jackley’s position on the death penalty is a very significant issue for me. Not just his position but the reality he has actually pursued the death penalty at his job in circumstances I have discerned don’t justify the death penalty.
That said, the Pope, USCCB, and Church do acknowledge there is a difference and distinction between abortion which is intrinsically evil and the death penalty which not intrinsically evil. While the Pope, USCCB, and myself as an individual have all discerned by our own particular prudential judgment regarding the morality of the death penalty in the US, such discernment (by even the Pope) is not a Moral Teaching binding on teh faithful. It is however a moral teaching which the faithful is to give most serious prayerful consideration, deference to the degree one’s Conscience allows, and to sincerely pursue a reconciliation of their position with the moral teaching of the Pope and Church.
So, your statement “another hypocrite pandering” is false as you are incapable at any level to peer into the interior heart of Jackley to make such a statement.
So some lives are more sacred than others. Got it. Orwell would be proud.
In what situation has the office of the attorney general under Marty Jackley sought the death penalty with which you didn’t agree?
Remember, you said Marty Jackley. Not him defending a case that was found and sentenced prior to him taking over in 2009.
Ike, I know you think you are scoring points but you are only showing you are willing to spout off on something upon you know nothing or so little more than nothing to seemingly only able to make falsehoods.
Intellectuals understand certain concepts are unable to be reduced to one or two sentence bromides while the ignorant think otherwise. The Church has literally bookshelves on this issue.
I could probably point you to several million pages of pokemon fan fiction, but that doesn’t make it any more “intellectual” nor will it lead to any “discernment” as the the hearts of men. Just pointing out moral inconsistency when I see it.
Besides, I’m not looking to “score points”. I’ll leave that to you tribalists. I’m just here for my own amusement.
Too bad you don’t have a job so you could fill some of your time.
I’m self employed. Personal responsibility, you know?
The one statement Marty made to me which resonates loudly for me today is that there are some people so evil they cannot ever be around other human beings in any setting. In light of this level of evil I will accept the death penalty as justified.
Charlie, that is the argument I hear most but it is not compelling theologically because we can put such a person in a secured setting where their evil and potential acts can pose no harm to another under any circumstances. As a corollary, such a position exposes the faithful person to the sin of Presumption (offend against hope by excess, despair by defect) where THEY are willing to give up on God’s Grace for this person.
I truly hope you misunderstood Marty’s rationale.
Better was already in jail when he committed this murder. Supposedly he was in a setting where he couldn’t hurt another…but he did. Unless he is put in a cell and fed thru a slot in the door and never allowed out of this room, there is a chance he could interact with and harm another human being again.
IMO there is a big difference between killing a preborn innocent and executing a guilty and dangerous criminal when there is no chance of his being innocent of the crime.
How about the doctor that has to see them? The nurse that has to check their blood pressure? The guard that has to check on them, give them food, or search their room? You cannot put someone into a hole. Its unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment. At some point, they will have human contact, and a person who is facing a life in prison who HAS ALREADY KILLED will have no issues with doing so again. Especially if they know their punishment cannot get any worse. They just have to wait for their next chance to try again.
There is evil in this world. I challenge you to consider your daughter or son having to be the one who goes in to check on these killers/rapists/torturers. If cant be comfortable with your own family doing it, then you should be comfortable with anyone else family having to do it either.
Troy would you keep or shoot a rabid dog?
Charlie, would you keep or shoot a rabid grandma?
That comment made any others you come up with totally meaningless. So why not go home and amuse yourself.
Dogs are not people. Glad to help.
I don’t think anyone said dogs WERE people. So your strawman might be the amusement you are looking for.
Charlie asked. Sorry.
If she was attacking me with a knife — Boom.
Charlie, I’d absolutely shoot a rabid dog. A rabid person is not the same as a rabid dog.
Ike, whatever consistencies or inconsistencies you see in this world, intentionally ignoring others have different values, experiences or criteria with regard to the matter makes you by definition ignorant. And intolerant.
If you think it is absolutely inconsistent to be opposed to abortion and the death penalty, I’m sure you also think the reverse is true (or that by definition is hypocritical).
Further, if you think his position is inconsistent based on what you know of Marty’s values, experiences and criteria, that is fine. However, your attempt to falsely and with no intellectual basis to use Church Moral Teaching and moral teaching and Magisterium Authority is at its core false.
LOL
You’re “pro-life” or you’re not. Equivocation and magic sky men aren’t going to help you there. The mental gymnastics you perform to twist this into some sort of defensible moral position are ridiculous. Don’t skip leg day, bro.
I don’t have to perform any mental gymnastics. Some people just don’t deserve to live.
Marty is doing the right thing.
It simply comes down to having a consistent pro-life ethic. Meaning, even depravity doesn’t strip humanity from a person and all human life is sacred and institutionalized vengeance is wrong. It’s immoral to kill a defenseless person, POW or otherwise. It’s not limited government to have a government that can decide who lives and dies.
Life is a sacred gift and it’s value should not be judged. Had this pos killed a fellow inmate would his prosecution and penalty been pursued so vigorously? Who paid for his defense and the pursuit of the death penalty? What a foolish waste of taxpayer money for the benefit of what glory. He should have been left in the basement. And it should have been kept damp and cold.
Everyone really does need to realize there must be a balance between keeping dangerous person locked up away from others and cruel and unusual punishment. Its like the dichotomy between perfectly free and perfectly safe. You cannot be both. To be perfectly safe, you must have your freedoms reduced. To be perfectly free, you have many protections taken from you.
Same thing here. You cannot keep prison workers, health care professionals, and maintenance people safe from a killer with nothing to lose unless you hold them in such a fashion as to be unconstitutional. They cannot be kept in a 6 by 6 room for the rest of their life. That’s been held as cruel. It only takes one second slip for an inmate to land a killing blow. They cannot do that if they have been executed. They can be redeemed by God in the afterlife, but some people are beyond redemption on this earth.
Interested,
I do not believe there is any justification for executions in the United States because of the following paragraph.
We are the most innovative nation on the earth. The assertion we can’t devise the means to incarcerate people in ways they pose no threat to prison employees and do so without denying the prisoner’s constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment is preposterous. Further, if you don’t think the SD DOC is not up to the task, I have no problem with SDDOC contracting with states or the federal government are willing and able to incarcerate such people. Of all the arguments for the death penalty, this is by far the weakest.
Feel free to tell that to widow Johnson.
You are one disgusting pig to invoke that tragedy in such a dishonest way. The murder of Prison Guard Ronald Johnson was by an inmate in the general population and not deemed a threat to others. He was not on death row.
Your cowardice to be such a piece of slime explains why you are anonymous. Or think you are.