Rapist's Case Renews Calls for Death Penalty

[MrRant 0]

CROOKSTON, Minn. — The arrest of a convicted rapist in the kidnapping of a college student has stirred anger over the man's release and brought calls from the governor to bring back the death penalty in Minnesota (search).

 

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. (search), 50, had been out of prison less than a year before his arrest Monday in the disappearance of Dru Sjodin (search), a 22-year-old University of North Dakota student. She vanished from a Grand Forks, N.D., mall on Nov. 22 and is still missing.

 

Despite a history of assaults that put Rodriguez among the state's most serious sex offenders, a psychologist and a review board agreed not to recommend that he be confined indefinitely for treatment after he served 23 years in prison for attempted kidnapping.

 

"I think they should have a special place for these kind of people," said Annetta Raymond, a woman in her mid-70s who grew up in Crookston, the town of about 8,000 where Rodriguez was living when he was arrested. Added Florence Kuznia, 77: "I don't think they should have let him out."

 

North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven said he had talked to Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to ask why Rodriguez was released. The civil commitment process "should have worked in this case," Hoeven said.

 

The Pawlenty administration has taken pains to note the process that led to Rodriguez's release happened under a previous administration.

 

Pawlenty is now trying to restore Minnesota's death penalty, abolished nearly a century ago after a botched hanging.

 

The governor called Sjodin's disappearance a "tipping point," and said he would ask the Legislature to allow capital punishment in some cases, including those in which sexual assaults are coupled with murders or attempted murder.

 

"As a Minnesotan, as a governor, as a dad of two young daughters, I'm fed up. I'm fed up with these stories where we have children abducted, women abducted with a not very good system for resolving the issue," he said.

 

Some Democrats accused Pawlenty of grandstanding on the issue, and even key people in his own Republican party were cool to the idea. Pawlenty acknowledged the idea would be an "uphill battle" when the Legislature convenes in February.

 

Sjodin was last heard talking to her boyfriend on a cell phone after she left her job at a Victoria's Secret.

 

The sentiment in Grand Forks "is to have a trial and then take him out and kill him," said Mike McNamara, host of a local radio talk show. "I'm talking about grandmothers calling me, saying things like, `String him up in the town square and let us deal with it."'

 

Anger has been so fierce that Rodriguez said through his lawyer Thursday that he wanted to remain in custody for his own safety. A North Dakota judge set bail at $5 million.

 

Pawlenty's announcement stirred up a storm of calls and e-mails to his office -- more than 600 after the first day alone. Sixty percent were in favor of the governor's stance, and 40 percent opposed, according to his staff.

 

With news of Rodriguez's arrest dominating the airwaves this week, 500 people filled a high school auditorium in nearby Thief River Falls on Tuesday for a hearing to notify the public about a sex offender. Police had expected about 100.

 

"It's nerve-racking and scary," said Angela Westlin, who said she wanted to learn what she needs to know to protect her 3-year-old and 1-month-old girls. "I think I left six lights on at home when I left to come to this meeting."

 

Already, Corrections Commissioner Joan Fabian has eliminated some of the steps before a sex offender may be committed.

 

Pawlenty has also said he will look at lengthening sentences in sex crimes and explore ways to increase supervision of violent sex offenders, perhaps through irremovable bracelets to track their whereabouts.

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Might as well kill him. Cheaper.

[Swift Terror 0]

a psychologist and a review board agreed not to recommend that he be confined indefinitely for treatment...

 

Not only are psychologists themselves the most mentally screwed up people on the planet, they also have rampant feelings of superiority. A bad combination when the fate of dirtbags like this guy is being decided...

[Firestarter 0]

Not only are psychologists themselves the most mentally screwed up people on the planet, they also have rampant feelings of superiority.

As a psychologist myself, I have to agree. I haven't done any scientific polls, but I feel safe saying that at least 98% of my fellow professionals are complete wastes of skin.

 

A bad combination when the fate of dirtbags like this guy is being decided...

Indeed. They're so caught up with their pretensions to ultimate moral authority (to disguise their rampant collective inferiority complex about the status of psychology as a discipline) that they lose sight of common sense somewhere along the way. Someone tortures and kills someone else, you don't "treat" him. You don't "rehabilitate" him. You don't even try. You kill him. Whether or not he can be redeemed is something for God to decide.

[Vern Gagne 0]

I won't go into this case much. Just this is the news up here, and the evidence so far is showing he's guilty, hopefully not of murder though.

[Guest JMA]

Whatever happens to this guy, he brought it all on himself.

 

That's all that needs to be said.

[Guest BDC]

I just hate to say that the girl's probably dead thanks to this pathetic waste of human life.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Not only are psychologists themselves the most mentally screwed up people on the planet, they also have rampant feelings of superiority.

As a psychologist myself, I have to agree. I haven't done any scientific polls, but I feel safe saying that at least 98% of my fellow professionals are complete wastes of skin.

What area are you in? My better half is in Clinical, and she can't stand 99% of the pinheads in her profession (thanks in part to years and years of me ragging on these idiots of course)...

[Firestarter 0]

Abnormal/criminal profiling. Mulderworld.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Hello clarice...

[Guest Cerebus]

It's tough...on one hand the prison system, supposedly, is supposed to reform criminals (i.e. Department of Corrections) but on the other hand I would never want to live in a neighberhood with this guy as long as my little 12 year old sister lives here.

[Guest MikeSC]

It's tough...on one hand the prison system, supposedly, is supposed to reform criminals (i.e. Department of Corrections) but on the other hand I would never want to live in a neighberhood with this guy as long as my little 12 year old sister lives here.

There is one MAJOR problem, though, with that:

 

To be rehabilitated, somebody has to WANT to be rehabilitated.

 

Criminals, by and large, don't want to be rehabilitated, so spending money on this particular aspect of the criminal justice system is a waste.

 

Heck, I was a psych major once and dropped out of that because of how borderline moronic my profs were and became a poli.sci major because, amazingly, poli.sci. is a more legitimate "science" than friggin' psychology.

-=Mike

...Who is still waiting for the day when psychologists are not viewed as "expert" witnesses in trials, since they will say WHATVER you want for the right price

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Heck, I was a psych major once and dropped out of that because of how borderline moronic my profs were and became a poli.sci major because, amazingly, poli.sci. is a more legitimate "science" than friggin' psychology.

And what major, pray tell, would you not drop out of due to idiot profs outside of business-type pursuits?

 

(Let me tell you the journalism realm isn't much better off...)

[Firestarter 0]

the prison system, supposedly, is supposed to reform criminals

Well, no. As I've said before, Western law is based on game-playing theories of human behaviour: we penalise people for crimes that harm society without passing moral judgements on the criminals themselves. We don't try to change anyone. We punish. We don't "rehabilitate" (more accurately, reprogram) people by force. That is not the purpose of prison. It is, purely and simply, to punish. Anything else would be unethical.

 

To be rehabilitated, somebody has to WANT to be rehabilitated.

Criminals, by and large, don't want to be rehabilitated, so spending money on this particular aspect of the criminal justice system is a waste.

It's like the old PSYC101 joke:

Q. "How many psychoanalysts does it take to change a light bulb?"

A. "Just one, but first the bulb must want to change."

 

Well yes, that's true enough. But it's beneficial to society to have systems to rehabilitate, educate, and monitor the criminals who do want to change. Simple cost-benefit analysis. But at present we carry it to an extreme. We treat people who don't want to be treated. We try to force them to conform to our standards. And we excuse them, and refuse to punish them, if we think they can be reprogrammed on our terms. That's wrong. It has never worked in the past, it doesn't work now, and it won't work in the future. We need to provide training and opportunities to the truly repentant, yes. But first, they - and all other criminals - must be punished.