By Seamus McGraw
(Continued)
Two of Rodriguez' prior victims slated to testify again
The panel also will hear from two witnesses — women who had been attacked by Rodriguez decades before Dru was abducted and killed — who testified during the guilt phase of the trial.
Rodriguez' defense attorneys will try to counter the prosecution evidence by arguing that the crime was not sufficiently heinous and not sufficiently premeditated to warrant death, and they also are expected to call members of Rodriguez' family to testify in the hopes of humanizing the convicted killer and convincing jurors that there are mitigating factors that argue for life in prison.
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| Alfonzo Rodriguez, Jr. |
Thus far, the defense has pinned its hopes on a rather narrow and technical legal question — whether the federal court, rather than a state court, has jurisdiction in the case. The defense, while never directly denying that Rodriguez was responsible for Dru's death, has argued that in all likelihood she died while still in North Dakota rather than in Minnesota, and that Rodriguez should therefore have been tried in North Dakota, where the most severe sanction he could face is life imprisonment.
The jury apparently rejected that argument in the guilt phase, but defense attorneys may be hoping that at least one juror will have enough lingering questions about the federal government's role in the case to prevent a unanimous recommendation for death.
If the jurors fail to agree on death, Rodriguez would automatically be sentenced to life.
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