Since 2003, defense attorneys in capital cases have been directed by the U.S. Supreme Court to conduct a careful search for the mitigating circumstances of each defendant’s life, and by the American Bar Association to retain a specialist who will compile “a comprehensive and well-documented psycho-social history of the client based on an exhaustive investigation.” The point of these directives was to make the death penalty less capricious and unjust. They certainly helped make it more expensive. And in Illinois, they helped in a small way to reform the death penalty out of existence.
It was a horrendous case—Sjodin had been bound, beaten, stabbed, and sexually assaulted. Yet neither North Dakota nor Minnesota had the death penalty any longer—North Dakota had executed no one since 1905. Stepping into this breach, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the Justice Department to take over the case—on the theory that if Rodriguez had crossed a state line before murdering Sjodin a federal crime was committed. Federal prosecutors announced they’d seek a death sentence, and Christiansen came on as Rodriguez’s mitigator.
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This bothers Christiansen most about the case: as he was completing a 23-year sentence for stabbing and attempting to kidnap a woman, Rodriguez told a prison psychologist that he was afraid to be released. “He said he wanted to be civilly committed. And she said, ‘What do you mean by that?’ He pointed to a civil commitment facility across the street. He wasn’t willing to say ‘I like being locked up my whole life.’ But he also wasn’t willing to say he should be outside—because he knew he shouldn’t. He didn’t like harming people. He didn’t want to harm anybody.” Christiansen says the psychologist replied, “It’s too late for that. You’ll be fine.”
By that time Buxton had spent 300 hours on Angel’s case and filled three binders a total of 12 inches thick. Her focus was on the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, where Angel lived five years, got good grades, acted in plays, and counseled younger girls. When ABC’s Cheryl Burton visited to do a story, Angel told her how much she liked the place. “You don’t have to worry about anybody, just anybody coming in,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about who’s going to walk into your room, who you gonna, you know, get molested or raped by.”
She adds, “And there are always federal cases.” There’s nothing to stop a federal judge from imposing a death sentence in Illinois.
