Man Convicted of Killing North Dakota Student Moved from Death Row to Florida Prison

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a North Dakota student 20 years ago has been moved from death row in Indiana to a Florida prison, according to federal records.

Alfonso Rodriguez, 70, was convicted of killing 22-year-old Dru Sjodin in November 2003 after abducting her from a mall parking lot in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Her body was found in April of the next year in Crookston, Minnesota.

Rodriguez has been moved from a death row prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, to Coleman II, a high-security penitentiary in Sumterville, Florida, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records, The Bismarck Tribune reported.

Rodriguez was sentenced to death in 2007. His death sentence was overturned in September 2021 when a federal judge ruled that Rodriguez’s constitutional rights were violated during his trial, citing misleading testimony from the coroner, the failure of lawyers to discuss a possible insanity defense, and evidence of severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

Federal prosecutors announced in March that they would not seek the death penalty again and Rodriguez’s sentence was changed to life without parole.