Jurors say Rodriguez eligible for death penalty

FARGO, N.D. - The same jury that convicted Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. in the killing of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin has decided he is legally qualified for the death penalty. The jurors will hear more testimony next week before deciding his sentence.

Rodriguez, 53, of Crookston, showed no emotion when the eligibility decision was announced Thursday afternoon. He clasped his hands in front of his chin and looked straight ahead.

Some of the jurors fought back tears, and Rodriguez's mother and sister wiped their faces with tissue. Sjodin's father, Allan, and her mother, Linda Walker, showed no reaction.

If the seven women and five men do not return a unanimous verdict for the death penalty, Rodriguez will be sentenced to life in prison without parole. The sentencing phase is to start Monday afternoon.

Rodriguez was found guilty last week of a federal charge of kidnapping resulting in the death of Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes.

She was abducted from the parking lot of a Grand Forks shopping mall on Nov. 22, 2003. Her body was found the following April in a ravine near Crookston.

Prosecutors said she was beaten, raped and stabbed.

Defense attorney Richard Ney filed a legal brief Thursday opposing the government's motion to exclude Rodriguez's family and friends from testifying about the impact of the death penalty. Prosecutors say the testimony of his family and friends is irrelevant.

Ney wrote that federal death penalty law allows the defense to show that "defendant's family loves him, that defendant loves his family, and that defendant's execution will emotionally harm the members of his family."

Family members and friends of Sjodin will give victim impact statements and it would be unfair to exclude Rodriguez's side, Ney said.

"Considerations of equity alone argue for the admission of evidence," he said.

U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson did not rule on the motion Thursday. Former U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug said the law allows the defense some latitude in presenting its case.

"There will be some limits in terms of purely emotional appeals, but the defense should have a fair amount of leeway," Lillehaug said Thursday.

Prosecutors have filed a motion that would prevent Rodriguez from giving an "unsworn, uncross-examined statement to the jury."

Sjodin's parents and U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley, who walked out of the courthouse with them, cited an order by Erickson limiting public comments, in declining to talk about the case.

"There remains work to be done between now and Monday," Wrigley said.

"As Mr. Wrigley said, we still have some processing left to go," Walker said.

Erickson told jurors not to read any news reports or talk to anyone about the case over the weekend.

"It's safe to say this will probably be a fairly newsworthy event in our community," the judge said.

Jurors were asked to answer eight questions in the verdict form in deciding whether Rodriguez was eligible for the death penalty - including whether he planned to kill Sjodin and whether the crime fit one of four eligibility factors in the death penalty law.

They deliberated about four hours Wednesday and returned for four hours on Thursday morning before announcing their verdict after lunch.

The jurors unanimously agreed that Rodriguez qualified for the death penalty because Sjodin died during kidnapping, and that he caused serious bodily harm in three previous crimes involving assaults on women. Rodriguez had served more than 20 years for offenses that included rape and attempted kidnapping and had been out of prison about six months before Sjodin's death.

The jurors also agreed that Sjodin was tortured but they did not find "substantial planning and premeditation" or evidence of "serious physical abuse."

North Dakota does not have the death penalty but it is allowed in federal cases.

The last state-sanctioned execution in North Dakota was a hanging in 1905, said state Supreme Court Justice Dale Sandstrom, who researched and wrote about the subject.

Two others were sentenced to hang but neither did, and the last man sentenced to death by hanging was spared in 1915, Sandstrom said.