|  Author | Topic: ~ Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. (Federal) ~ (Read 15 times) |
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Karma: 76 |  | ~ Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. (Federal) ~
« Thread Started on Dec 31, 2007, 2:51am » | |
A federal jury sentenced Alfonso Rodriguez, of Crookston, Minn., to death in February for the 2003 kidnapping and killing of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin.
Rodriguez was convicted in September 2006 of kidnapping resulting in the death of Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson made the sentence official on Feb. 8.
Sjodin disappeared from a Grand Forks shopping mall parking lot in November 2003, and her body was found near Crookston the following April. Rodriguez had been released from prison six months earlier for other crimes, including rape and attempted kidnapping.
Rodriguez is one of about 55 death row inmates awaiting execution at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.
Source: WCCO, Minneapolis/St. Paul
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BuzzC
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Karma: 76 |  | Re: ~ Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. (Federal) ~
« Reply #1 on Mar 29, 2008, 5:55pm » | |
Sjodin's Mother, Prosecutor Discuss Case--
March 29, 2008
The mother of slain University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin says she was prepared to let the killer escape the death penalty if he led authorities to the body.
Linda Walker said she, her husband, Sid, and Dru's father, Allan Sjodin, asked U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley in December 2003 to make an offer to Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.: no death penalty if he helped in the search.
"I was willing to take the bargain in exchange to find my loved one," said Walker, who along with Wrigley talked about the case Friday to University of North Dakota law students.
Wrigley declined the request. He said he wanted to keep the death penalty as an option, and let the defense come to him seeking a deal.
Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn., disappeared in November 2003 from a Grand Forks mall parking lot. Her body was found in April 2004 in a ravine near Crookston, Minn., where Rodriguez lived. Rodriguez, a convicted rapist, was arrested Dec. 1, 2003. He was convicted in Sjodin's death and sentenced to die in September 2006.
Rodriguez, 55, is on federal death row. Defense attorneys filed a notice of appeal in February 2007, and have until April 7 to appeal the sentence handed down in the first death penalty case in North Dakota in nearly a century.
Rodriguez was tried in federal court because the case crossed state lines. Wrigley said he called a grand jury just weeks after Sjodin disappeared and met with Rodriguez in the Grand Forks County jail in February 2004, long before it officially was a federal death penalty case.
Wrigley said the willingness of Rodriguez and his attorney to meet with a federal prosecutor signaled to him that Rodriguez had killed Sjodin and that her body was in Minnesota, not North Dakota.
Source: WCCO-TV, Mpls./St. Paul
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BuzzC
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Karma: 76 |  | Re: ~ Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. (Federal) ~
« Reply #2 on Nov 23, 2008, 9:59pm » | |
Abduction brought tougher sex offender laws--
November 22, 2008
FARGO, N.D. – The five years since the abduction and murder of a University of North Dakota student have brought tougher laws against sex offenders. Top state and federal prosecutors say it's not enough.
Dru Sjodin, a UND senior from Pequot Lakes, Minn., was taken from the parking lot of a Grand Forks shopping mall on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003, after talking with her boyfriend on her cell phone. Her body was discovered in a ravine near Crookston, Minn., five months later. Authorities said she had been beaten, raped and stabbed.
Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., a convicted rapist from Crookston, was sentenced to death for kidnapping and killing the 22-year-old Sjodin. He is in a federal prison in Indiana awaiting execution while his lawyers prepare to argue an appeal.
The prosecutor who sent Rodriguez to death row, U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley, believes the case captured national attention because Sjodin was abducted while walking to her car after shopping. It could have happened to anybody, Wrigley said.
"There was this raw feeling that there was no way to protect against this," Wrigley said.
State and federal lawmakers have since tried to bolster that protection. A dozen new laws against sex offenders have been enacted in North Dakota since Sjodin was killed. Minnesota has taken similar steps. The names of victims have been attached to federal legislation, including the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, Katie's Law, and Dru's Law.
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said the case has created an intolerance toward sex offenses that was long overdue. But more is needed, he said.
"You're never satisfied. You can always do things better," Stenehjem said. "There are serious offenses and this has resounded with the public and the legislature and the judiciary."
Minnesota made major changes in the way it handles sexual predators in the wake of the Sjodin case, partly because it was Minnesota that let Rodriguez go free in the first place.
State officials had classified Rodriguez as a Level 3 sex offender, the kind most likely to re-offend, but they opted not to try to commit civilly, which would have let the state hold him indefinitely. Because he served his entire 23-year sentence, he was under no restrictions when he left prison six months before Sjodin's abduction.
Minnesota now keeps more sex offenders locked up longer, and supervises them more closely once they do get out of prison. It has sharply increased the number of sex offenders it commits to security hospitals after their prison sentences run out, and it has adopted tougher sentencing for new offenses, particularly for repeat offenders.
Recent North Dakota sex offender legislation calls for enhanced sentences, less red tape for civil commitment proceedings, tougher penalties for luring and possession of child pornography and expanded registration requirements, including DNA and fingerprints.
The state also completed a user-friendly sex offender Web site that includes detailed information, photographs of offenders, and the ability to sign up for e-mail notices when offenders move into a certain city. The site has had "millions of hits," Stenehjem said.
"I was working on our sex offender Web site before this case, but it really helped for getting the Legislature on board," Stenehjem said.
Wrigley said that while the case shed light on Level 3 sex offenders, some of them still are allowed to walk the streets.
"Alfonso Rodriguez is not the first and he's not going to be the last," Wrigley said. "We need to ask ourselves, 'How do we allow that to happen?' To me, it's the irony of the whole thing. Why does a Level 3 sex offender get out of prison?"
Sjodin's family has been active in promoting sex offender legislation. Her mother, Linda Walker, spent three years working on Dru's Law, which created a national sex offender registry. She is a member of the Surviving Parents Coalition, which seeks to stop predatory crimes.
"I just spent some time with Dru's family and went to her grave for the very first time," Wrigley said this week. "The family appreciates so much the public's warm embrace over the years."
Wrigley is likely to be replaced as U.S. attorney when president-elect Barack Obama takes office, but said he still hopes to argue against Rodriguez's appeal before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A hearing date has not been set.
"Five years does nothing to diminish the horror of what he did," Wrigley said. "Now that we've gotten the verdict in this case, it's our job to defend the trial and defend the judge, and we're actively in the middle of that process."
Source: Yahoo News
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BuzzC
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Karma: 76 | | Re: ~ Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. (Federal) ~
« Reply #3 on Sept 22, 2009, 10:39pm » | |
Death sentence affirmed in Dru Sjodin kidnap case--
September 22, 2009
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday affirmed the death sentence of a convicted rapist for the 2003 kidnapping and killing of a University of North Dakota student in a case that led both Minnesota and North Dakota to toughen their sex-offender laws.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., of Crookston, Minn., got a fair trial and rejected his bid to overturn his death sentence.
The ruling came three years to the day that a federal jury in Fargo, N.D., decided Rodriguez should die for kidnapping resulting in the death of Dru Sjodin. The jury earlier found him guilty of abducting Sjodin on Nov. 22, 2003, from the parking lot of a Grand Forks, N.D., shopping mall where she worked.
Despite massive searches that included National Guard troops, the 22-year-old Pequot Lakes, Minn., woman was missing for five months until her body was found near Crookston, where Rodriguez lived with his mother. Authorities said she had been raped, beaten and stabbed.
Rodriguez, who had been released from prison just a few months before the kidnapping, appealed on several grounds, including the venue for the trial, the composition and selection of the jury, evidentiary rulings, statements by the prosecution and Sjodin's family and friends during the penalty phase of his trial, the jury instructions during the penalty phase and the constitutionality of the death penalty.
In its 2-1 ruling, the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit rejected the defense arguments on all those points. Among other things, it said the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying the defense motion to move the trial from North Dakota to Minnesota. It disagreed with the defense's criticisms of the jury selection process. It said the evidence about semen in Sjodin's body was properly admitted, as was evidence of Rodriguez' previous convictions for sexual assault. And it rejected the defense's claims of errors by the judge and prosecution through his trial.
Sjodin's mother, Linda Walker, said the family was pleased with Tuesday's ruling, but she's sure that the process isn't over yet.
"We have absolutely the best legal team as possible. This latest success is because of them. We're very grateful as a family," Walker said.
A dozen new laws against sex offenders have been enacted in North Dakota because of the case.
Minnesota toughened its procedures for handling sexual predators after coming under fire for letting Rodriguez go free six months before Sjodin's abduction, after he served 23 years in prison for a previous conviction. While state officials had classified him as a Level 3 sex offender, the kind most likely to re-offend, they opted not to try to commit civilly, which would have let the state hold him indefinitely.
Minnesota now keeps more sex offenders locked up longer, supervises them more closely once they do get out of prison and commits more of them to secure mental hospitals once their prison sentences run out.
"This is another reason why we should not let these predators out to reoffend time and time again," Walker said of the state's failure to keep Rodriguez confined earlier.
Source: The Tallahassee Democrat
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