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mate Rodney Berget, 50.
• Johnson's widow, Lynette, said after the execution that she knows Robert's death will not bring back her husband, her children's father or her grandchildren's grandfather.
• "But we do know that the employees of the Department of Corrections and the public in general will be just a little bit safer now," Lynette Johnson said. "We need to have more attention and focus on the safety of all of the correctional officers in the state of South Dakota. Ron, none of you will ever know how great he is and is missed. We stand proud for Ron."
• Lynette Johnson, her two children and their spouses all witnessed the execution. No one from Robert's family was in attendance.
• Robert ate his last meal of ice cream with his lawyer, Mark Kadi, on Saturday night before fasting for 40 hours for religious reasons.
• After the execution, Kadi said the execution was very "orderly and polished."
• "The problem was it was too orderly. It was so antiseptic and peaceful that it masked what was being done to the person," Kadi said. "If more people were able to see the events, there would be fewer of them."
• Johnson was working alone the morning of his death -- also his 63rd birthday -- in a part of the prison known as Pheasantland Industries, where inmates work on upholstery, signs, custom furniture and other projects. Authorities said the inmates beat Johnson with a pipe, covered his head in plastic wrap and left his body on the floor.
• Robert then put on Johnson's pants, hat and jacket and approached the prison's west gate. With his head down, he pushed a cart loaded with two boxes. Berget was hidden in one of the boxes, according to a report filed by a prison worker after the slaying.
• Other guards became suspicious as the men got closer to the gate. When confronted, Robert beat one guard; other guards quickly arrived and detained both inmates.
• Months later, Robert told a judge his only regret was that he hadn't killed more guards. He pleaded guilty to Johnson's slaying and asked to be sentenced to death, telling a judge last October that he would otherwise kill again. He never appealed his sentence and even tried to bypass a mandatory state review in hopes of expediting his death.
• Berget also has pleaded guilty in the killing but has appealed his death sentence. A third inmate, Michael Nordman, 47, was given a life sentence for providing materials used in the slaying.

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