Rodriguez seeks new hearing in death penalty case

A man sentenced to death for the killing of a University of North Dakota student is asking for a new hearing in front of a federal appeals court. Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., of Crookston, Minn., a convicted sex offender, was found guilty in 2006 of killing 22-year-old Dru Sjodin of Pequot Lakes, Minn. She was kidnapped from a Grand Forks shopping mall on Nov. 22, 2003, and her body was found the following April. Authorities said she had been raped, beaten and stabbed.