
Luke Lillehaugen
FARGO (KFGO/KVRR) — One of the jurors who decided Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr. should be executed for kidnapping and murdering Dru Sjodin is speaking out.
Luke Lillehaugen was part of the six-week long, three-part trial in 2006 that left Rodriguez sitting on death row in federal prison in Indiana.
He said the prospect of Rodriguez getting off death row, and possibly being in a facility closer to his family is part of why he chose to sentence him to death.
“That was one of the reasons I could justify the death penalty – to make sure that he got the punishment. He couldn’t see his family and his family couldn’t see him the way he did to his victim,” Lillehaugen said. “(Now), that might not be the case. What did we do it for, you know?”
Lillehaugen called the long-drawn-out legal process frustrating.
He said he feels Rodriguez should have been executed by now. However, he says he knew it was always more likely the convicted murderer would have died in prison of natural causes instead of being put to death.
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