FARGO, N.D. – Prosecutors who sought the death penalty for a Crookston rapist-murderer have challenged the judge who a month ago ruled capital punishment may be wrong in the case. The prosecutors’ claim: The judge at the sentencing hearing inadequately explained his rationale to discard the sentence. Meanwhile, Alfonso Rodriguez, 58, has been on death row since 2007. At issue now is the whether the judge erred at a sentencing hearing in 2007 by not mentioning Rodriguez’s mental capacity as possibly mitigating. This September federal Judge Ralph Erickson agreed to a defense request to reconsider the death penalty. In response, prosecutors filed a document Friday that Rodriguez’s attorneys failed to raise the issue at the appropriate time. During the whole legal process, Rodrigues has maintained innocence.
Death penalty
Neither North Dakota nor Minnesota has the death penalty, but Rodriguez was tried under federal law due to the interstate nature of the crime. His victim, Dru Kathrina Sjodin, 22, a University of North Dakota student, was kidnapped in a Grand Forks mall parking lot, in North Dakota, and transported to Minnesota near Rodriguez’ hometown of Crookston 25 miles away. Rodriguez has been at the U.S. penitentiary at Terra Haute, Indiana, which has a lethal injection facility to carry out capital punishment.