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Jury: Death for sex offender who killed student
Associated Press
22 Sep 2006 10:36 pm
A jury in North Dakota's first death penalty case in nearly a century decided Friday a convicted sex offender should be executed for kidnapping and killing a college student after she left a shopping mall.
Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 53, of Crookston, Minnesota, looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the sentence was announced in the slaying of Dru Sjodin.
"We hope the need does not arise for another 100 years," U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley said.
The federal jury reached its decision after more than a day and a half of deliberations. The same jury convicted Rodriguez on August 30 of kidnapping resulting in Sjodin's death.
North Dakota's last execution was in 1905, and the last person sentenced to death was spared in 1915. The state no longer has the death penalty, but it is allowed in federal cases. Rodriguez was charged under federal law because Sjodin was taken across state lines.
Defense attorney Richard Ney said he will ask for a new trial. "Life is worthy of being saved, no matter who it is," Ney said.
Jurors say Rodriguez is eligible for death penalty
DAVE KOLPACK
07 Sep 2006 12:00 am
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, Minn., 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, Minn. 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.
SEX OFFENDER
KXMBTV
05 Sep 2006 11:30 pm
The sex offender treatment program at the State Hospital in Jamestown can now handle more offenders.
Space and security problems were the main concerns for making more room to house sex offenders.
The new space has twenty beds and opened in the middle of August.
More security cameras and employees have been added for safety reasons.
There are currently forty-eight patients in the program.
To complete the program a patient needs to complete a three step process.
(Alex Schweitzer, Superintendent) "Well, we discovered that there's kind of a fine balance between having a hospital and a treatment program which we provide and security. You know, we're not in a security business, but we've learned from this population that you have to be a little bit more concerned about security than we used to in the rest of the hospital."
The sex offender unit opened in 1997. So far, no one has completed the the three step treatment program.
Sjodin trial: With Dru missing, search grew more urgent
SHANNON PRATHER
15 Aug 2006 12:00 am
Within hours of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin's disappearance, police began searching for her car and trying to track her cell phone signal, witnesses testified today in the trial of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.
Rodriguez is on trial in federal court in Fargo for kidnapping across state lines resulting in Sjodin's death. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Sjodin's body was discovered in April 2004 in a ditch near Crookston. Her hands were tied behind her back and her throat cut.
Mental health professionals to learn about children's treatments
Associated Press
07 Aug 2006 12:00 am
Early and more consistent treatment for children who have experienced abuse, neglect and other trauma could reduce problems for them later, says the director of a project to train mental health professionals.
Fargo's Neuropsychiatric Research Institute and the University of North Dakota medical school will offer training this fall in new treatments for children who have been through trauma.
"If you can get to these kids early, you can help them reclaim the person they were before the trauma happened," said Steve Wonderlich, the project's director and associate chairman of clinical neuroscience at the medical school's Fargo campus.
AG touts N.D.'s sex offender site
Dale Wetzel
28 Jul 2006 12:00 am
North Dakotans who want to know if a dangerous sex offender lives nearby now may check instantly, using a state Web site that now displays maps of their addresses, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said.
Stenehjem said recent improvements to the site, which began operating in November 2001, allows users to search for sex offenders by address, age and physical description. Visitors may call up detailed maps to see if an offender lives near their home, or their child's school.
The new mapping feature shows only the sex offenders who are considered at high risk of committing more crimes, and those whose sex crime convictions require them to register with local authorities for the rest of their lives.
Lawmakers turn up heat on sex treatment facilities
~ Rapist's escape shows why push to better secure hospitals where offenders are being held ~
The weekend escape of a convicted rapist highlights the difficult balance of handling sexual offenders who have completed their prison confinements and yet are being held - indefinitely, it seems - for treatment as patients.
Recent legislation affecting North Dakota's sunshine laws
HB1139: Oral testimony and written statements from any crime victim to North Dakota's parole and pardon advisory boards are confidential.
HB1289: Hearings to decide whether someone is a dangerous sexual predator and should be committed indefinitely for treatment are open to the public, as is the petition asking that the person be committed.
