Death Sentence Affirmed in Dru Sjodin Kidnap Case

[Appaholic]

MINNEAPOLIS – 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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_ ... ent_appeal

Hope he gets schived in the yard.....

[dbackjon]

Hope he gets lots of prison love

[Gil Dobie]

The biggest question is why was A-Rod released from prison in the first place. Third Degree Sex Offender, was released 7 months prior to this murder.

strib Link

According to the Minnesota Department of Corrections Web site, Rodriguez is a level 3 sex offender - considered most at risk to reoffend - and has a history of using force and weapons to kidnap and sexually assault women. In at least two cases, he did not know his victims, according to the Web site.

Rodriguez was released from prison May 1. He had been found guilty in June 1980 of first-degree assault and kidnapping for stabbing a woman and forcing her into his car, but it was unclear if that was his most recent conviction.

At the time of that assault and kidnapping, he was on leave from what is now the State Security Hospital at St. Peter. He had been there since pleading guilty to an aggravated rape in Crookston about six years earlier.

[BisonAccountant44]

Glad to hear it. That bastard deserves everything he has coming to him.