Man gets death in N.D. student's killing

[question everything]

Man gets death in N.D. student's killing

By DAVE KOLPACK, Associated Press Writer

Jurors on Friday sentenced a convicted sex offender to death for kidnapping and killing University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, whose body was found in a Minnesota ravine nearly five months after she disappeared.

It was North Dakota's first death penalty case in more than a century. The state does not have the death penalty but it is allowed in federal cases.

(snip)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060922/ap_on_re_us/slain_student_trial

[snappyturtle]

1. I live twenty miles from Pequot Lakes......

and this story has been enormous here.....normally I don't support the death penalty but this guy put Dru's family through HELL....they couldn't find the body until after the snow melt....he's a sick person.

[question everything]

8. Yes, but killing him will not bring Dru back

and, as was reported, will probably not bring any closure to the family.

And life in prison is not a day in a spa, either.

ND does not have the death penalty, so they brought the feds. Ashworth was known to force several trials - mostly drug related, I think - to move to be in federal courts in states that do not have the death penalty.

[bluestateguy]

2. I'm sure he'll be executed

in about 20 years

[MnFats]

3. can Minn/NoDak countenance capitol punishment?

she was kidnapped in North Dakota and killed in Minnesota; hence the federal case.
neither state allows capitol punishment and it's been almost 100 years since a convict was executed in either state.
usually somebody brings a bill reinstating the death penalty..... and it goes nowhere...
personally i detest capitol punishment...

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. Capitol Punishment?

Is that like being forced to watch CSPAN for three hours?

:rofl:

[barb162]

4. either death penalty or lock him up FOREVER

[MarkTwain]

5. One tragedy ruthlessly compounded by another...

... State sanctioned murder is not only as evil as the horrendous crime for which this man has been convicted, but with the full moral weight of that state, is far more disgusting and morally reprehensible than the original crime.

End Capital Punishment. Virtually all civilized countries have rid themselves of this cruel, aberrant, and abhorrent act done solely out of revenge.

Those that support it are truly sad and pitiful souls mired in tragic, primitive and hate-filled need for petty revenge.

[geek tragedy]

7. Capital punishment is wrong, but it is not the same

as a torture/rape murder.

Dru Sjodin was innocent and in no way deserved to suffer. Her murderer DOES deserve harsh and severe punishment.

To put it another way, the state shouldn't be killing anyone, but that fucker deserves to die.

[snappyturtle]

14. That was my point....but I didn't say it as succinctly as you have!

And another thing that has been playing on my mind in Dru's case---since we do not (do we?) condone torture and Dru was tortured,and I wouldn't have a problem with torturers being shot I guess that attitude has morphed into my "acceptance" of the death penalty in Rodriguez's case. I don't see giving him the pleasure of eating and breathing on the tax payers' dime. I also think the people who released him should be investigated.....he was in a safe place and we allowed him out to scope and prey on another woman.

edit:spelling

[jacklambert]

11. I had to re-read your post a couple of times...

I find that capital punishment is used far too frequently in this country, and maybe a more just and difficult sentence for this cretin is life in federal prison. But to say that state-sanctioned capital punishment is "more disgusting and morally reprehensible than the original crime" is pure bunk.

The snatching of an innocent young adult to be brutally raped and then killed as if she were a piece of discarded trash is the heighth of moral reprehension. At least the state has the majority backing of the people who elect its representatives. I don't think the same can be said for sexual predators and murderers.

Please re-think your post and try again.

[uppityperson]

6. 1st appeal: didn't get a fair trial in Fargo

Too much pre-trial publicity leading to inability to get a fair trial. I hope he lives in jail for a long time.

[jacklambert]

13. I hope he lives in jail for a short time. nt

[Haole Girl]

10. I won't lie and say I'm at all sorry he got the death sentence

[greccogirl]

20. Me, either. I'm sorry, but if that were

my daughter, I'd want to see the person that brutally raped and murdered her come out with a tag on his toe. Too bad he can't die as she did. His death penalty will be a piece of cake compared to hers.

[Odin2005]

12. That sicko desrves the most painful death imaginable.

[sofa king]

17. No!

As an atheist, I'm here to say that the sicko deserves a most painful life. And I don't mean physical pain either, for if we do that we will come to resemble our criminals.

I mean the pain of being sequestered away from society, forever, without hope of reprieve, with only his own thoughts to torment him. That's torture enough. That's punishment enough. And it doesn't let the sonofabitch off the hook early by snuffing him out.

[colorado_ufo]

23. While I understand your view,

the truth is, we all see the world through our own way of processing thoughts. You and I might be locked away with incomprehensible guilt - if somehow we were ever in any way involved in such a crime - but the reality is that many of these types of criminals do not suffer from guilt.

[sofa king]

24. Maybe not guilt

But they sure as hell suffer from remorse and regret, loneliness and futility. That's good enough for me, particularly since I don't suffer from guilt or any of those other things by condoning it.

In my mind, what I'm advocating is far, far worse than death. Lose your freedom, and you might as well be dead. Lose your freedom and not have the option to die? That's some tough fuckin' love, there.

By the way, I'm not entirely opposed to the death penalty, but I think it's way overused. Off the top of my head, I can think of three crimes where death might provide some cathartic release for the public and might possibly make a societal statment: crimes against humanity, mass murder, and espionage. Hermann Goering, Timothy McVeigh, and the Rosenbergs. That's four people in the past sixty years, as opposed to thousands--and Goering still got off the hook.

[leesa]

21. And that helps... how? You're into vengeance, huh?

Makes you similar.

Odd how these death penalty things are so completely arbitrary...one gets death for killing one and another gets 25 years for killing 5...weird.

[geek tragedy]

22. Posting on a bulletin board is not the same as rape and murder.

Just so you know.

[Endangered Specie]

15. I won't miss him...

Lethal Injection seems too good for that bastard.

[grannylib]

16. I hate what he did to her and what he put her family through...but I can

not support the death penalty...
I think it would be FAR worse punishment to spend the remainder of life in prison; I know I'd rather be dead than face that.

And I wonder...if HE had been blonde and attractive, and SHE had been a woman of color, instead of the other way around, would the case be getting as much attention??

[onecent]

18. Rest in Peace Dru. What a beautiful spirit she was. WHY WHY WHY

is there such hate and destruction in the world today?

We fear for our children, our grandchildren, our trips on an airline, computer thefts. Why are there terrorists? murderers, pedophiles, rapists, cons stealing identities?

I want to wake up in a world of peace. Bring back the "good ole days"....please.

[wellst0nev0ter]

19. Sorry, Still Don't Support The Death Penalty

We all know at least two reasons why prosecuters went out of their way in making this into a federal celebrity death penalty case. The death penalty is not equally distributed at all, and the application of the punishment is very hypocritical. Until the justice system is actually equitable and fair, there is no way I'm supporting the death penalty.