Former Superior man to be put to death in SD
South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard does not plan to intervene in Monday's execution of a former Superior resident, the Duluth News Tribune reports. Eric Donald Robert, 50, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 p.m. for the 2011 killing of prison guard Ronald Johnson during a failed escape attempt at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls, the newspaper reports.
He is a former supervisor of a Superior city wastewater crew. He went to prison in 2005, accused of posing as a police officer and kidnapping an 18-year-old woman and putting her in the trunk of his car. She called police from her cell phone.
Robert received his last meal on Sunday night, WDAY reports. He requested moose tracks flavored ice cream and now he is fasting, the station reported. A vigil by death penalty opponents is planned outside the prison.
Robert's life story is unlike most others on death row – he at one time had been a model citizen, the Associated Press reports. The AP says he was a good student, put himself through college, had a solid career and was a community volunteer.
