Alfonso Rodriguez the death penalty for the 2003 kidnapping, rape and murder of Dru Sjodin.
“Today is the most difficult day of my life,” U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson said this morning in handing down the sentence.
He rejected a motion for a new trial.
Rodriguez abducted Sjodin in November 2003 from the parking lot of a mall in Grand Forks, N.D. Her body was found about six months later by a ravine near Crookston, Minn.
The case was tried in federal court because state lines were crossed when the crime was committed, which is why Rodriguez was eligible for the death penalty. Neither North Dakota nor Minnesota allow the death penalty in state prosecutions.
Rodriguez, 53, could be on death row for several years as appeals are made by his attorneys.
Sjodin was a native of Pequot Lakes, Minn.
While, as I’ve mentioned, I oppose the death penalty for one and only one reason – the systemic inevitability of eventually executing the wrong person – suffice to say I don’t think Rodriguez has any claim to be convicted in error.
I won’t be celebrating his execution, but I won’t picket it, either.
I’ll be serving free scotch should we ever get around to snuffing this dirt bag.
On a similar note, should we need to decide where the MOB should celebrate when Castro dies. I vote for the Bulldog in Minneapolis, as you can smoke cigars there.
donkeyman….the connection is that innocent babies are just that…INNOCENT. You can hardly make the claim that Dru Sjodin’s killer is innocent.
I understand the need for a death penalty. There are certain criminals (John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Alfonso Rodriguez etc) that deserve it.
LL
Um, that was Tracy, not Terry, donk (Definately a “he”). Speaking from personal experience, I can say his “glee” is never crude. Although I would not presume to speak for him I think I can safely say that he shares my opinion that Al is somewhat less than human, and like Gacy, Bundy, Hussien, etc. will not only not be missed, but their absence makes this world a better place.
Thanks Kermit. Alphonso is not any form of human I recognize. He took the life of an innocent women, I shudder to think of why. I celebrate because his death will not only reaffirm my faith in our justice system, it will also be just.
I am not pro-life, so the sancity of life rubric won’t work with me.
We need to reserve the ultimate punishment for those that commit the ultimate crime or we admit that Dru’s life was somehow less valuable than his. A truly disgusting thought. Dru Sjodin deserves to have Rodriquez pay the ultimate price for his crime. Anything less devalues her life.
Why is wrong with celebrating an improvement of the human condition? V-E and V-J day were earned by massive death tolls, yet everyone celebrated then. Rodrigues is much, much lower on the humanity scale than the millions of Japanese and German soldiers that died defending a twisted cause. We celebrated their deaths.
I guess donkeyman is a beer drinker.
If Donkeyman can’t distinguish between snuffing out the life of a dirtbag who has killed a woman and otherwise harmed multiple others, and snuffing out the innocent life of a baby before it’s born, then why even bother wasting time trying to debate? He’s just out and out wired differently than those of us who feel an innocent baby’s life is worth vastly more than the waste of skin sucking down our tax dollars in prison.
The moral equivalence is just astounding.
Yeah, the VE and VJ day analogies were bad, I had a dessert wine tasting last night.
I agree that we do best when we value people and life but even you exclude the criminal (not Rodriguez of course),
I fail to see why we should have no satisfaction when justice is served. We have substituted our justice system for the natural instinct for vengeance. Are you saying that we are to now ignore that emotion all together? Is that even possible?
The move towards increased sensitivity and moral relativism are causing the populace to lose faith in our justice system. As this faith erodes, we see increased in vigilantism. Your goal to be more civil results in incivility. The public has a natural desire for justice and vengeance and when our system stops delivering that, we will seek it on out our own.
I think we differ on the issue of evil. Rodriquez is evil. I know that we have to be careful not to demonize Jews or liberals, but murders demonize themselves. Rodriquez sacrificed his claim on mercy when he killed Dru Sjodin. He is a cancer on the populace that must be removed.
There is no doubt that he committed this crime, the DNA evidence is too strong. Given that, he must pay for what he did. For him to grow old and see the future, even from behind bars, is more than Dru Sjodin will ever see and thus too good for him. Life is precious, that’s why society should take Rodriquez’s life, he doesn’t deserve such a precious thing.
Or to misquote Pulp Fiction, “”It’s time to go Old Testament on his ass!”
Never underestimate the potential of the sub-human. Every Homo Sapiens is NOT equal, no matter how high minded we try to be.
The French adopted Equality, Liberty, Fraternity as the motto of their revolution, and then promptly began murdering their fraters by the thoudands.
Nobody should get holier-than-thou, here.
I know Tracy. He’s not on any “dangrous path” at all. He stated something that I occasionally feel myself – that most of us feel at one time or another. We feel hurt and ashamed and embarassed to share a species with the likes of Rodriguez. It has nothing to do with hating people because of things they don’t control, like ethnicity, or for merely differing from us, like politicians.
Even if Rodriguez became what he became at least partly due to things he didn’t control – family abuse, mental illness, whatever – I think most of us want our species to be better than THAT; that the human race we inhabit isn’t going to be flying planes into buildings or gassing children or kidnapping, raping and killing a girl just getting started with her own life.
I wouldn’t read anything into it but the rage of people who watched this ugly, sad little horror story unfold and wished they could do something about it, and can’t.
Yet.
Donk….I think that Tracy (when he said that Rodreguiz was “sub-human”) is saying what a lot of people feel vis a vis evil actions. No one wants to “share” a mutual categorization with anyone who is capable of the actions that Rodreguiz and Michael Zabawa (for example) were capable of. Let’s face it….none of us want to be lumped into the same category as those two.
LL
Hey! Sub-human is MY epithet, and I did not apply it to Alphie, although it fits quite well. Tracy will have to create his own offensive appelation.
It’s not joy we feel at the timely departure of this or any other monster. It’s more like relief, in the truest sense of the word. Don’t forget to flush.