Friday,  August 17, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 0334• 23 of 39 •  Other Editions

(Continued from page 22)

ing day, she plans to run indoors on a treadmill just to be safe.
• Robson, 55, remembers the last time Dallas officials resorted to aerial spraying. She was 9, and her mother told her to stay inside.
• "You have to weigh the good and the bad," Robson said. Spraying "is the lesser of two evils."
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Court upholds death sentence in SD guard killing
CHET BROKAW,Associated Press

• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- An inmate who killed a South Dakota prison guard during a failed escape attempt should face the death penalty, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
• Eric Robert, 50, pleaded guilty to killing Ron Johnson in April last year and asked to be executed for the crime.
• Circuit Judge Bradley Zell of Sioux Falls sentenced Robert to death and set his execution for May, but the Supreme Court postponed the execution so it could conduct a mandatory review of the sentence.
• The high court unanimously upheld the death sentence Thursday. The justices ruled that the penalty is proportionate to the crime and justified by aggravating circumstances -- that Robert killed a prison guard and the murder occurred during an escape attempt.
• "This was not merely an escape attempt on the spur of the moment where events

spiraled out of control. Here the record reflects that Robert had been planning his escape attempt, which included the murder of a corrections officer, for well over a month. His planning stage included obtaining the lead pipe eventually used to kill Johnson," Chief Justice David Gilbertson wrote.
• The circuit judge was not influenced by passion or prejudice in sentencing Robert to death, but instead considered that Robert is dangerous because he has threatened to kill again, has a violent history, is unlikely to be rehabilitated and committed a severe crime, the Supreme Court said. The justices said their review of the sentence was particularly important because Robert has demanded to be executed.
• "Robert's persistent efforts to hasten his own death necessitate intense scrutiny to guarantee his desire to die was not a consideration in the sentencing determination. We do not participate in a program of state-assisted suicide," Gilbertson wrote.
• The high court said the circuit judge can issue another execution order.
• South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, who prosecuted the case, said he will ask the circuit judge to set an execution date. Robert's execution by lethal injec

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