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• Larson was in court Tuesday morning and not immediately available for comment on the Supreme Court order, his office said. • Attorney General Marty Jackley, who opposed Larson's request, said he respects the authority of the court to issue a stay. He plans to begin preparing for the next step in the appeals process, in which attorneys will file written arguments. • "It will be the state's position that this is a valid conviction and sentence, and we intend to provide the necessary filings to support that position," he said. • Johnson was killed on his 63rd birthday. Authorities said Berget and Eric Robert, 50, struck Johnson with a pipe and covered his mouth with plastic wrap. Robert then donned Johnson's uniform and tried to push Berget, hidden inside a box, outside the prison's gate. • Berget was serving life sentences for attempted murder and kidnapping, and Robert was serving 80 years for kidnapping. • Robert was executed last October. A third inmate, Michael Nordman, was sentenced in February 2012 to life in prison for providing materials used in the slaying. • The prison made more than a dozen procedural changes after Johnson's death to improve security and safety. Johnson's widow, Lynette Johnson, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the state, the Department of Corrections and several DOC officials. •
NM woman accused of fatally beating woman
• FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) -- A 31-year-old northern New Mexico woman faces charges of second-degree and other crimes in the death of a woman who died in Minnesota from injuries suffered in an April 2 beating in Farmington. • Danielle Smiley was arrested last week on a warrant in the May 10 death of 28-year-old Danielle Dixon. • Dixon died at a hospital in Rochester, Minn., after initially being hospitalized in Rapid City, S.D. • An autopsy indicated that Dixon suffered multisystem organ failure as a result of blunt force chest trauma, and police say detectives were able to determine that the injuries resulted from the April beating. • Police say Dixon declined to press charges immediately after the beating and traveled to South Dakota to stay with her mother in Rosebud. •
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