Death penalty upheld in ND college student slaying (AP)

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AP - A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of a convicted rapist for the 2003 kidnapping and killing of a University of North Dakota student in a case that led Minnesota and North Dakota to toughen their sex-offender laws.

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Minnesota also toughened its procedures for handling sexual predators after coming under fire for letting Rodriguez go free six months before Sjodin's abduction, after he served 23 years in prison for a previous conviction. While state officials had classified him as a Level 3 sex offender, the kind most likely to re-offend, they opted not to try to commit civilly, which would have let the state hold him indefinitely.

Minnesota now keeps more sex offenders locked up longer, supervises them more closely once they do get out of prison and commits more of them to secure mental hospitals once their prison sentences run out.