After nearly two decades of sitting on death row the penalty provision in the case of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. has been withdrawn.
North Dakota U.S. Attorney Mac Schneider says his office was directed by the U.S Attorney General to withdraw the notice of intent to seek the death sentence – and the order was filed this morning.
Rodriguez was convicted in the 2006 death of UND student Dru Sjodin.
In a prepared statement Schneider says “The directive to withdraw the death notice has changed how the United States Attorney’s Office will proceed with this case. What will not change is that Mr. Rodriguez will draw his last breath in a federal prison.”
Schneider says his thoughts are with the Sjodin family.
President Biden personally opposes capital punishment. Sjodin’s family has said they support the death penalty for Rodriguez.
In a statement, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, who prosecuted the original case against Rodriguez, expressed disappointment that — in his words — “the system allowed the legal wrangling to continue…”
Wrigley called today’s (Tue’s) decision “…a grave affront to justice and to the hearts and souls of all who loved and cared for Dru Sjodin.”
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STATEMENT OF ND ATTORNEY GENERAL DREW WRIGLEY IN RESPONSE TO U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WITHDRAWL OF ALFONSO RODRIGUEZ DEATH PENALTY NOTICE
“Alfonso Rodriguez is currently confined to the death row prison cell he earned by targeting,
threatening and sexually assaulting women across three decades, before he kidnapped, beat, tied,
sexually assaulted, and brutally murdered Dru Sjodin, in November 2003. It will forever remain a
humbling privilege to have led the trial team entrusted with going to battle for justice on behalf of Dru
Sjodin, her parents, her brother, all their other family and loved ones and our community. It’s been
nearly 17 years since a federal jury announced their verdicts after the longest federal criminal trial in
state history: Guilty of kidnapping resulting in Dru Sjodin’s death, with several aggravating factors
rendering Rodriguez eligible for a sentence of death. The jurors then listened intently to several days
of additional testimony and argument, before announcing their unanimous decision on
punishment: Death. That verdict and sentence were upheld by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
and even reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States, which concluded there was nothing
further to evaluate. But the system allowed the legal wrangling to continue, culminating over a decade
later in a federal judge concluding that the defense attorneys he handpicked for the trial had, upon
further consideration, been legally and constitutionally deficient. He ordered a new sentencing
hearing.
The Biden Administration’s withdrawal of the Death Penalty Notice against Alfonso Rodriguez
means that this death row inmate will no longer face the sentence handed down by a federal jury in
2006. Rodriguez will remain in prison for life, but the gates of death row will be opened, returning
him to general prison population where he will be allowed to construct a social existence and life for
himself within the confines he found so comfortable across the decades he was previously
imprisoned. This result is a grave affront to justice and to the hearts and souls of all who loved and
cared for Dru Sjodin. They have our prayers for God’s Peace as do all who held out the hope there
would be justice for that brave woman.”
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