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Man gets death in N.D. student's killing - Dru Sjodin
AP on Yahoo ^
| 9/22/06
| Dave Kolpack - ap
Posted on 09/22/2006 10:11:07 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
FARGO, N.D. - Jurors on Friday sentenced a convicted sex offender to death for kidnapping and killing University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, whose body was found in a Minnesota ravine nearly five months after she disappeared.
It was North Dakota's first death penalty case in more than a century. The state does not have the death penalty but it is allowed in federal cases.
Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 53, of Crookston, Minn., looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the sentence was announced.
The jury reached its decision after more than a day and a half of deliberations. The same federal jury convicted Rodriguez on Aug. 30 on a charge of kidnapping resulting in Sjodin's death.
Rodriguez's mother, Dolores, and sister, Ileanna Noyes, cried as the verdict was announced, as did a number of the jurors. Members of Sjodin's family looked somber and stared straight ahead. They shared hugs outside the courtroom.
Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn., disappeared from a Grand Forks shopping mall parking lot on Nov. 22, 2003, and her body was found the following April in a ravine near Crookston. Authorities said she was beaten, raped and stabbed.
Rodriguez, who got out of prison about six months before the killing, was charged under federal law because Sjodin was taken across state lines.
U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley, in his statements to jurors, said the death penalty would be the "right thing, in the right case." He stood near her portrait and asked for justice.
Rodriguez's attorney, Richard Ney, asked the jury for mercy after calling psychologists and Rodriguez's family to talk about his childhood of poverty, abuse and exposure to farm chemicals. Ney also said Rodriguez had been anxious about being released from prison after serving more than 20 years for assaults on three women in 1975 and 1980.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; US: North Dakota
KEYWORDS: deathpenalty; drusjodin; killing; northdakota; student
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To: Young Werther
He's going to the federal pen, where they will give him the needle.
21
posted on
09/22/2006 11:14:17 AM PDT
by
darkangel82
(Higher visibility leads to greater zottability.)
To: nmh
"Rodriguez's attorney, Richard Ney, asked the jury for mercy after calling
psychologists and Rodriguez's family to talk about his childhood of poverty,
abuse and exposure to farm chemicals."
That might have flown if it had been tried in Minneapolis.
Especially the part about the evil farm chemicals.
22
posted on
09/22/2006 11:15:34 AM PDT
by
VOA
To: NormsRevenge
Lower the blade 1/10" every 10 min.
To: COEXERJ145
Come to think of it, what kind of name is Dru Sjodin? Doesn't sound American to me. Maybe she deserved it . . . . /sarc
24
posted on
09/22/2006 11:18:00 AM PDT
by
1rudeboy
To: 1rudeboy
Well, based on the logic of some, if she had been an illegal she would have. Some have been hoping the woman dragged to death in Denver was an illegal.
25
posted on
09/22/2006 11:18:51 AM PDT
by
COEXERJ145
(Free Republic is Currently Suffering a Pandemic of “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”)
To: MplsSteve; mplsconservative
26
posted on
09/22/2006 11:20:30 AM PDT
by
lesser_satan
(EKTHELTHIOR!!!)
To: NormsRevenge
27
posted on
09/22/2006 11:22:29 AM PDT
by
EDINVA
To: NormsRevenge
Once, just once, I'd like to see the media - or FreeRepublic, for that matter - get this worked up over the brutal, senseless killing of an ugly woman.
28
posted on
09/22/2006 11:26:36 AM PDT
by
Terabitten
(Deus Vult!)
To: NormsRevenge
Sure gotta wonder how his lawyer figured that "poverty and exposure to farm chemicals" would excuse murder in a place chock full of poor farmers.
29
posted on
09/22/2006 11:28:55 AM PDT
by
ko_kyi
To: mtbopfuyn
psychologists and Rodriguez's family to talk about his childhood of poverty, abuse and exposure to farm chemicals I don't remember who said it but it was spot on when he stated Poverty does not cause crime. Tolerance of crime causes crime.
30
posted on
09/22/2006 11:29:57 AM PDT
by
clifcrds
(There Are None So Blind Than Those Who Will Not See)
To: steel_resolve; Dane; MNJohnnie
You know, I don't know what free republic site you're surfing, but except for dolts like Dane and MNJohnnie
To: shhrubbery!
You know the rules. When speaking of another poster, make sure you ping that poster.
31
posted on
09/22/2006 11:31:05 AM PDT
by
Howlin
(Declassify the Joe Wilson "Report!")
To: COEXERJ145
Do you find it as amusing as I that, by suggesting race and ethnicity have little or nothing to do with
this story, it makes me a member of the "pc police?" Conversely, it is (presumably) "conservative" to inject race and ethnicity into a discussion of nearly everything?
Granted, I'm stretching my point, but we wouldn't be having this discussion if the murderer had something other than a Hispanic (or "non-WASPish) name.
32
posted on
09/22/2006 11:36:56 AM PDT
by
1rudeboy
To: NormsRevenge
Too bad some here have used the occasion of this incident to bitch at their fellow freepers. Really bad taste.
RIP Ms. Sjodin & burn in hell, Rodriguez, you piece of human excrement.
33
posted on
09/22/2006 11:41:10 AM PDT
by
skeeter
To: Millee
"Good, do it today."
Well said. Monday at the latest.
34
posted on
09/22/2006 11:44:24 AM PDT
by
jocon307
(The Silent Majority - silent no longer)
To: steel_resolve
How utterly typical of the One Note Tancredo fans. Unable to factually debate the issue on the actual thread, they race around the board whining endlessly. Perhaps we need to have a minimum age for Freepers. Pretty obvious we have allowed far too many junior high school level age children on here.
It is this conduct that is reducing the Immigration threads to a pale shabby embarrassing joke where the Antis assume volume and emotional hysteria can be substitute for anything even remotely reassembling rational thought. A very fine example of just how childish and pathetic the Tancredos supporters are. Yet another reason why TT will never get any where near the Nomination. His supporters are every bit as hysteric and repulsive as Soro's Moveon.org clowns.
35
posted on
09/22/2006 11:56:06 AM PDT
by
MNJohnnie
(Ann Coulter: "I love Freepers!" Told to Freeper eeevil Conservative)
To: mtbopfuyn
Big fuckin deal if he was abused. If he was abused and he did something other than being a sex offender, I'm sure we'd be more sympathetic to this sicko.
36
posted on
09/22/2006 11:56:32 AM PDT
by
TypeZoNegative
(".... We are a nation of Americans. We are DECENDED from legal immigrants"- johnandrhonda)
To: COEXERJ145
Some have been hoping the woman dragged to death in Denver was an illegal.!!!!!!!
To: 1rudeboy
Unless the perp has a Hispanic or Arabic name, threads on FR about crime tend to disappear very quickly.
38
posted on
09/22/2006 12:12:41 PM PDT
by
COEXERJ145
(Free Republic is Currently Suffering a Pandemic of “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”)
To: COEXERJ145
Unless the perp has a Hispanic or Arabic name, threads on FR about crime tend to disappear very quickly.If the guy is Hispanic-named-but-legal, you get folks muttering "anchor baby."
To: Terabitten
Once, just once, I'd like to see the media - or FreeRepublic, for that matter - get this worked up over the brutal, senseless killing of an ugly woman. Helen Thomas?
40
posted on
09/22/2006 12:16:27 PM PDT
by
null and void
(There's no nothing. End of report. Any questions?)
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