Fargo: A federal judge has driven the death penalty for a man who was convicted at the 2003 murder of a North Dakota student.
Judge Ralph Erickson ruled Friday that a misleading testimony of medical examiners and limitations on mental health evidence had violated the constitutional right of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.
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He ordered a new sentence phase to do.
Rodriguez has been in a row of deaths in a federal prison for almost two decades for the murder of Dru Sjodin, a Minnesota woman who was kidnapped from the parking lot of the Grand Forks Mall in November 2003.
Rodriguez, a sex actor, was arrested the following month.
Although some great searches, Sjodin’s body was not found until the next April near Crookston, Minnesota.
The kidnapping and slaughter of Sjodin encouraged dramatic changes in how to handle Minnesota to punish sex violators, which lead to a surge in the amount of time indefinitely for the treatment program of sex actors outside their prison sentence.
This program also limits people without time limits when they are treated.
And public offender registry national sex, intended to provide public information about the existence of registered sex violators, renamed for Sjodin.
Acting US lawyer Nick Chase issued a statement but did not say what was planned by the next prosecutor.
“The verdict did not affect the guilty verdict in this case, and Rodriguez remained in a federal prison,” Chase said.
“ The United States Department of Justice will evaluate opinions and access all possible options.
“Eric Montroy, Rodriguez’s public defender, did not immediately respond to a telephone message looking for comments.
In his decision, Erickson wrote that the testimony of medical examiner Ramsey County Michael McGee was “ not reliable, misleading and inaccurate ” about the cause of death of Sjodin.
He also wrote that Rodriguez’s lawyer did harm Rodriguez by choosing to limit the evaluation of the mental health of their clients who could cost the cost of possible madness.
“ Even though it was beyond the question that Rodriguez kidnapped and killed Sjodin, the current evidence in the record had led the court to conclude that errors were made that violated the US constitution so that the due process was required, ” Afickson wrote.
Erickson, who is now a judge at the 8th US Circuit High Court, choked when he sentenced him to death as decided by the jury in September 2007.
In October 2007, Erickson denied the first appeal in this case, saying that the jury correctly decided on the case The value of each factor for and opposes the death penalty, rather than `numbers”.
“ The proof is enough to maintain the death penalty, “Erickson said at that time.
The judge threw the death penalty in the murder of the N. Dakota students
