Posted on 12/03/2003 2:47:59 AM PST by Heatseeker
ST. PAUL - The arrest of a Minnesota sex offender in the abduction of a North Dakota college student prompted Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to call Tuesday for the death penalty in his state.
Pawlenty said he will ask the Legislature to allow juries to impose the death penalty in cases where sexual assaults are coupled with murders or attempts to murder, where police and children are killed and in "other heinous crimes."
"As a Minnesotan, as a governor, as a dad of two young daughters, I'm fed up. I'm fed up with these stories where we have children abducted, women abducted with a not very good system for resolving the issue," he told a news conference.
"It will be an uphill battle, but I am going to push it."
Minnesota is one of 12 states without the death penalty. It abolished capital punishment five years after the botched hanging of a man in 1906. The most recent attempts to revive the death penalty have failed resoundingly.
Pawlenty, a Republican finishing his first year as governor, supported death penalty bills as a legislator. He never has spoken before as governor about seeking the law change.
But he said the case of student Dru Sjodin, who has been missing since Nov. 22, was a tipping point.
Authorities have arrested Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 50, of Crookston, in the case.
Rodriguez was released from a Minnesota prison in May after serving 23 years for an attempted abduction in Crookston in 1979.
Democratic Rep. John Lesch, a St. Paul prosecutor away from the Legislature, said he sees government executions as barbaric.
"This is absolutely a knee-jerk reaction to an unfortunate situation that happened to this young girl. When we talk about this situation, we should keep it focused on why this happened and who was responsible for releasing him," Lesch said.
The Legislature last voted on the death penalty in 1997, where it was defeated 102-30 as an amendment to a crime bill in the House.
The most recent newspaper public opinion poll was in February 2000, where 57 percent favored the death penalty for convicted murderers and 33 percent opposed it. That Star Tribune poll signaled a decline in public support from a 1996 survey that found 73 percent of Minnesotans favoring executions.
Minnesota does provide for life without parole under certain circumstances.
Congress reinstated the death penalty for certain federal crimes in 1988. Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have not asked for capital punishment in any cases brought to trial since then, although there is one pending case involving the shooting of an armored truck driver where the death penalty may be sought.
Pawlenty took other steps Tuesday in response to the case. He ordered a review of all pending releases of sex offenders from Minnesota prisons to see if any should be civilly committed. His Corrections commissioner, Joan Fabian, said she would seek civil confinements of all Level III sex offenders, who are deemed the most dangerous.
The governor also said he will look at lengthening sentences in sex crimes and explore ways to increase supervision of violent sex offenders, perhaps through irremovable bracelets to track their whereabouts.
© 2003 Grand Forks Herald and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
It would be more effective to push for general CCW then a death plenlty.
I am not against the death plenlty but it is shown CCW has a bigger impact on these types of crimes plus for some offenders it is a death sentance.
Kind of sad that neither MN and ND have the death penalty. To be honest, I am uncomfortable with it on moral grounds, but as as a life sentence merely means some future liberal bureaucrat will decide he's OK for "unsupervised home visits" a la John Hinckley, I see it as the only way to keep people safe.
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