Appeal filed in case of slain ND college student
Criminal Law
Lawyers for a man sentenced to death for killing a University of North Dakota student submitted a document Tuesday for what is considered the final step in the legal appeals process, claiming his trial team was ineffective and that the man is mentally disabled.
The 298-page document, a so-called habeas corpus motion, was filed in federal court for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., who was convicted of kidnapping resulting in the death of Dru Sjodin of Pequot Lakes, Minn. Rodriguez, 58, of Crookston, Minn., is being held on death row at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.
The appeal was filed by attorney Joseph Margulies, a Northwestern University law professor who has represented several death row inmates. U.S. attorneys in the case depicted Rodriguez "as little better than an animal, uncaring and unworthy," Margulies said.
"We now know this carefully scripted tale conceals much and reveals little. Little about the government's case, and even less about Alfonso Rodriguez, was true," the document says. "In the pages that follow, we describe in meticulous detail the difference between what was and what could have been."
Federal prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.
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Grounds for Divorce in Ohio - Sylkatis Law, LLC
A divorce in Ohio is filed when there is typically “fault” by one of the parties and party not at “fault” seeks to end the marriage. A court in Ohio may grant a divorce for the following reasons:
• Willful absence of the adverse party for one year
• Adultery
• Extreme cruelty
• Fraudulent contract
• Any gross neglect of duty
• Habitual drunkenness
• Imprisonment in a correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint
• Procurement of a divorce outside this state by the other party
Additionally, there are two “no-fault” basis for which a court may grant a divorce:
• When the parties have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation
• Incompatibility, unless denied by either party
However, whether or not the the court grants the divorce for “fault” or not, in Ohio the party not at “fault” will not get a bigger slice of the marital property.