Court upholds death sentence in the 2003 kidnapping-slaying of Univ. of North Dakota student

Death penalty upheld in ND college student slaying

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld 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 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 defense said it would appeal.

The 2-1 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.

“We’re gratified by the outcome but we know this is the first step,” said Lynn Jordheim, acting U.S. attorney for North Dakota.

Rodriguez, 56, who had been released from prison just a few months before the kidnapping, appealed on several grounds including statements made by the prosecution and Sjodin’s family and friends during the penalty phase and the jury instructions during the penalty phase.

The three-judge panel of the St. Louis-based court rejected the defense arguments.

Judge Michael Melloy dissented from part of the opinion. He said there were several errors in the government’s penalty-phase closing arguments that were so serious that the death sentence should be vacated and the case should be sent back to the district court for a new penalty phase.

“In reaching this conclusion, I do not take lightly the jury’s finding of several serious aggravating factors, the extreme violence of the crimes against Dru Sjodin, or the overwhelming evidence of the defendant’s guilt,” Melloy wrote. “However, we must ensure that jurors have been allowed to serve their proper role with full consideration of all relevant factors and full opportunity to exercise the discretion vested solely in their hands.”

Defense attorney Richard Ney said the issues Melloy raised would be the key to the defense’s petition to the full 8th Circuit.

“We’re, to say the least, disappointed with the decision but we are gratified by the fact that Judge Melloy would have reversed the death sentence based on prosecutorial misconduct,” Ney said.

Sjodin’s mother, Linda Walker, said the family was pleased with Tuesday’s ruling.

“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 also 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.

Associated Press writers Elizabeth Dunbar in Minneapolis and Dave Kolpack in Fargo contributed to this report.

On the Net:

The 8th Circuit’s opinion is at: www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opinions/opinions.html