Federal prosecutors will be dropping the death penalty sentence for Alfonso Rodriguez Junior. Rodriguez was sentenced in November 2003 for the kidnapping and murder of college student Dru Sjodin. Rodriguez, a previously convicted sex offender, was caught in December of that year.
Sjodin, 22, was attending the University of North Dakota in 2003 when she was kidnapped in the Grand Forks parking lot. Her body wasn’t found until April 2004 near Crookston, Minnesota.
Rodgriguez was recently released after serving a 23-year sentence for the kidnapping, assault, and rape of a woman. He pled guilty to rape several times.
Police suspected that Rodgriguez was responsible for Sjodin’s disappearance after he was spotted in that area. Rodgriguez lied to authorities during questioning saying that he went to see the movie Once Upon a Time in Mexico. The movie wasn’t playing at the Columbia Mall Cinema theater. Police found receipts of Rogriguez buying tape and a knife from local stores. They also found Sjodin's shoe and DNA in Rodriguez's car. Rodgriguez was arrested on December 1st, 2003, and was sentenced in 2006.
Sjodin's murder led to changes in how Minnesota would handle sex offender cases, having offenders continue treatment indefinitely and requiring that their information be provided to the public via the sex offender registry.
President George W. Bush signed The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act into law to honor Sjodin's memory, changing the name of the National Sex Offender Public Registry to the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website. The website provides information for all convicted and released sex offenders in all U.S. states, territories, and reservations. The Sjodin family started a Facebook group called Dru’s Voice to raise awareness for victims of sexual crimes.
In September 2021, a North Dakotan federal judge threw out Rogriguez's death sentence, saying, that the “medical examiner was just guessing and didn’t properly explore mental health evidence.” The judge also ruled that Rodriguez could’ve suffered from psychosis and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), violating his constitutional rights.
In 2022, attorneys from the prosecution and the defendant agreed to dismiss Rodgriguez's death penalty appeal and reconsider his sentencing.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors ruled that they will dismiss the death penalty sentence for Rodgriguez. U.S. attorney Mac Schinder released a statement via the Associated Press, saying that he had contacted her [Sjodin’s] mother and was directed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to withdraw the death penalty sentence.
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