STATEMENT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL DREW WRIGLEY IN RESPONSE TO U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WITHDRAWL OF ALFONSO RODRIGUEZ DEATH PENALTY NOTICE

20 Mar STATEMENT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL DREW WRIGLEY IN RESPONSE TO U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WITHDRAWL OF ALFONSO RODRIGUEZ DEATH PENALTY NOTICE

March 14, 2023

CONTACT: Attorney General, Drew H. Wrigley 701.328.2210

“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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