Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 8, 2006 4:26:15 GMT -5
Rodriguez one step from death penalty
COURTS:A North Dakota jury finds Dru Sjodin's kidnapper eligible for a death sentence.
BY SHANNON PRATHER
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
FARGO, N.D. - Jurors took nine hours to rule Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. eligible for the death penalty for the kidnapping and slaying of Dru Sjodin, but their most agonizing decision could still lie ahead.
During a sentencing hearing that begins Monday, the federal jury will hear wrenching statements from Sjodin's mother, father and other relatives. Defense experts will talk about Rodriguez's mental problems and the abuse he suffered as a child.
Jurors then must decide whether Rodriguez should die for his crime or spend the rest of his life in prison. If the jury sentences him to die, Rodriguez would get a lethal injection.
Sjodin's parents, Linda Walker and Allan Sjodin, listened quietly Thursday as a court clerk read the jury's decision. The seven-woman, five-man jury looked somber, with some members fighting back tears. Rodriguez's mother and sister cried.
Rodriguez, 53, met three of four aggravating factors that under federal law qualify him for a death sentence, the jury determined. Federal prosecutors only needed to prove one to advance the trial to the final penalty phase.
Jurors unanimously found that Rodriguez caused Sjodin's death during a kidnapping, that her slaying was especially cruel and involved torture and that Rodriguez had committed three prior violent criminal offenses. They did not find that he premeditated and planned Sjodin's killing, as prosecutors had alleged.
The jury spent more time on the eligibility question than they did deliberating his guilt. Jurors convicted Rodriguez on Aug. 30 after hearing eight days of testimony and spending four hours deliberating.
Outside the courthouse, Sjodin's parents, standing with Drew Wrigley, U.S. Attorney for North Dakota, said a gag order prevented them from reacting to the latest verdict.
"I wanted to send our heartfelt thanks to the people who have come into our lives and supported us," Walker said.
"We appreciate everyone here," Allan Sjodin said to the nearly two-dozen reporters on the courthouse steps. During the third and final phase of trial, prosecutors will have Sjodin's family describe the devastating impact of the 22-year-old's disappearance and slaying.
Wrigley is expected to argue that given Rodriguez's prior crimes, the torture he employed while killing Sjodin and the impact on the victim's family, death is the proper punishment.
If jurors agree with prosecutors, it would be the first death sentence imposed by a North Dakota jury in more than a century. Neither North Dakota nor Minnesota has state death penalties.
Rodriguez abducted the University of North Dakota senior from a Grand Forks, N.D., mall parking lot Nov. 22, 2003. A searcher discovered her half-nude body in a ditch near Crookston, Minn., five months later. Her hands were bound behind her back and her throat was cut. The medical examiner found evidence of a sexual assault and remnants of a plastic bag around her head.
Rodriguez has prior convictions for aggravated rape, attempted aggravated rape, and attempted kidnapping and felony assault. The sex offender spent 23 years in prison before his release in May 2003.
Rodriguez's defense team is expected to call witnesses including mental health experts to show mitigating factors in an attempt to spare his life. They are expected to argue that Rodriguez was sexually abused as a child, was exposed to farm chemicals and that he suffers from a mental disease, defect or condition.
The defense also wants Rodriguez's family to testify about the impact his execution would have on them and the family. Prosecutors want to keep that out.
Jurors will weigh mitigating and aggravating factors. Jurors must be unanimous in their recommendation of the death penalty. Otherwise, Rodriguez will face life in prison without the possibility of release.
COURTS:A North Dakota jury finds Dru Sjodin's kidnapper eligible for a death sentence.
BY SHANNON PRATHER
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
FARGO, N.D. - Jurors took nine hours to rule Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. eligible for the death penalty for the kidnapping and slaying of Dru Sjodin, but their most agonizing decision could still lie ahead.
During a sentencing hearing that begins Monday, the federal jury will hear wrenching statements from Sjodin's mother, father and other relatives. Defense experts will talk about Rodriguez's mental problems and the abuse he suffered as a child.
Jurors then must decide whether Rodriguez should die for his crime or spend the rest of his life in prison. If the jury sentences him to die, Rodriguez would get a lethal injection.
Sjodin's parents, Linda Walker and Allan Sjodin, listened quietly Thursday as a court clerk read the jury's decision. The seven-woman, five-man jury looked somber, with some members fighting back tears. Rodriguez's mother and sister cried.
Rodriguez, 53, met three of four aggravating factors that under federal law qualify him for a death sentence, the jury determined. Federal prosecutors only needed to prove one to advance the trial to the final penalty phase.
Jurors unanimously found that Rodriguez caused Sjodin's death during a kidnapping, that her slaying was especially cruel and involved torture and that Rodriguez had committed three prior violent criminal offenses. They did not find that he premeditated and planned Sjodin's killing, as prosecutors had alleged.
The jury spent more time on the eligibility question than they did deliberating his guilt. Jurors convicted Rodriguez on Aug. 30 after hearing eight days of testimony and spending four hours deliberating.
Outside the courthouse, Sjodin's parents, standing with Drew Wrigley, U.S. Attorney for North Dakota, said a gag order prevented them from reacting to the latest verdict.
"I wanted to send our heartfelt thanks to the people who have come into our lives and supported us," Walker said.
"We appreciate everyone here," Allan Sjodin said to the nearly two-dozen reporters on the courthouse steps. During the third and final phase of trial, prosecutors will have Sjodin's family describe the devastating impact of the 22-year-old's disappearance and slaying.
Wrigley is expected to argue that given Rodriguez's prior crimes, the torture he employed while killing Sjodin and the impact on the victim's family, death is the proper punishment.
If jurors agree with prosecutors, it would be the first death sentence imposed by a North Dakota jury in more than a century. Neither North Dakota nor Minnesota has state death penalties.
Rodriguez abducted the University of North Dakota senior from a Grand Forks, N.D., mall parking lot Nov. 22, 2003. A searcher discovered her half-nude body in a ditch near Crookston, Minn., five months later. Her hands were bound behind her back and her throat was cut. The medical examiner found evidence of a sexual assault and remnants of a plastic bag around her head.
Rodriguez has prior convictions for aggravated rape, attempted aggravated rape, and attempted kidnapping and felony assault. The sex offender spent 23 years in prison before his release in May 2003.
Rodriguez's defense team is expected to call witnesses including mental health experts to show mitigating factors in an attempt to spare his life. They are expected to argue that Rodriguez was sexually abused as a child, was exposed to farm chemicals and that he suffers from a mental disease, defect or condition.
The defense also wants Rodriguez's family to testify about the impact his execution would have on them and the family. Prosecutors want to keep that out.
Jurors will weigh mitigating and aggravating factors. Jurors must be unanimous in their recommendation of the death penalty. Otherwise, Rodriguez will face life in prison without the possibility of release.