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reach a contract agreement.
• The Communications Workers of America said Monday that more than 88 percent of those voting backed the action.
• The union and Monroe, La.-based CenturyLink are trying to reach a new contract for 13,000 employees before the current contract expires Saturday night. The employees include customer service agents, network technicians and Internet support workers.
• The union approved a strike during contract talks in 2008 but a work stoppage wasn't ordered.
• CWA spokesman Al Kogler said the union opposes a proposed increase in health care premiums and wants to bring more jobs back to the U.S.
• CenturyLink workers in Montana are negotiating a separate contract.
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SD inmate asks court to overturn death sentence
KRISTI EATON,Associated Press
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- One of two inmates sentenced to death for killing a prison guard during a failed escape asked the South Dakota Supreme Court on Monday to spare his life, saying he did not receive a fair trial in the penalty phase of the case.
• A lawyer for Rodney Berget, 50, argued his death penalty should be overturned because the judge had already sentenced the other inmate to die by lethal injection in the case.
• Berget and Eric Robert, 50, both pleaded guilty in the April 12, 2011, killing of prison guard Ronald Johnson. Prosecutors said the two bashed Johnson with a pipe and covered his mouth with plastic wrap during a failed escape at the state penitentiary on Johnson's 63rd birthday.
• Robert asked Judge Brad Zell to sentence him to death, and Zell found there was at least one aggravating factor to warrant the death penalty. A few months later, Berget appeared before Zell to be sentenced after waiving his right to a jury trial.
• Zell was asked to do the impossible, said Berget's lawyer, Jeff Larson.
• "He was asked to hear facts of a co-defendant who frankly laid down and challenged nothing. And then he made factual findings and then he comes into our hearing, already having made findings and when we present cross examination. ... What choice does he have?" Larson said.
• If Zell didn't sentence Berget to death, he risked calling Robert's sentence into question, Larson said. But by doing so, Larson added, he didn't provide the individ (Continued on page 33)
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