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donned Jackson's uniform and attempted to push Berget, hidden inside a box, outside a prison gate. The plan failed, and Robert expedited his own death by attempting to waive the state's usually mandatory review of death penalty cases. He sealed his fate by assuring a judge that if allowed to live, he would kill again. He received a lethal injection on Oct. 15.
• 4. Former Sen. George McGovern dies.
• George McGovern made history in 1972 when he won the Democratic nomination for the nation's highest office but suffered a landslide defeat against incumbent President Richard Nixon. His October death at age 90, just weeks before the general election, briefly united Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who both praised him as a statesman. Vice President Joe Biden delivered a stirring tribute during the first of two Sioux Falls services, calling McGovern the "father of the modern Democratic Party" and positing that the nation would have been better off if he'd been elected.
• 5. Former Gov. Bill Janklow dies.
• A colorful figure who dominated South Dakota politics for more than a quarter century, Bill Janklow announced in late 2011 that he was suffering from inoperable brain cancer. He died in January at age 72, and hundreds gathered to mourn the man who served at various points as state attorney general, governor and congressman. Though Janklow was accused of running roughshod over his opponents, even his enemies acknowledged the Republican had a talent for getting things done.
• 6. Former U.S. Sen. Jim Abdnor dies.
• Jim Abdnor, who gained national fame as the Republican who ousted George McGovern from the U.S. Senate, died in May, just months before his one-time adversary. Abdnor, 89, was best known in his home state as a farmer-turned-politician who loved talking with people. A World War II veteran, he spent 30 years in public service after working as a teacher and coach.
• 7. Dark matter lab opens in Lead.
• The world's most sensitive dark matter detector opened in May in a former gold mine nestled in the South Dakota's Black Hills. Scientists working there hope to soon detect dark matter -- an elusive substance that scientists believe makes up about 25 percent of the universe. They know it's there by its gravitational pull, but unlike regular matter and antimatter, it's so far undetectable. Why search in South Dakota? Rick Gaitskell, a Brown University scientist working on the Large Underground Xenon experiment in Lead, said being nearly a mile underground in the shuttered Homestake Gold Mine will help shield the detector from pesky cosmic radiation that makes it impossible to detect above ground.

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