FARGO, N.D. (AP) - The trial of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. is entering its final stage, and jurors may begin deliberating this week over whether he should be the first person sentenced to death in North Dakota in nearly 100 years.

The verdict by the federal court jury of seven women and five men must be unanimous for Rodriguez, 53, of Crookston, Minn., to be sentenced to death instead of life in prison. He was convicted late last month of kidnapping resulting in the death of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin.

"I think this part is much harder to predict than when he was found guilty," said Joseph Daly, a Hamline University law professor who has participated in death penalty cases and has been following the Rodriguez case. "In North Dakota, jurors are not used to dealing with death penalty cases."

Rodriguez's attorneys were expected to wrap up their testimony on Monday. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson said he believes jurors could began deliberating Rodriguez's sentence by the middle of the week, after prosecutors present rebuttal evidence.

North Dakota does not have the death penalty but it is allowed in federal cases. During a trip to Fargo last year, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the government is justified in seeking capital punishment in some cases in states that have outlawed the penalty.

"I believe the fact the state doesn't have the death penalty doesn't mean that the people of the state would not impose the ultimate sanction when the right circumstances dictate that that happen," Gonzales said.

Prosecutors point to the fact that jurors, in deciding earlier that Rodriguez was eligible for the death penalty, found that Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn., was killed in an "especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner."

Sjodin disappeared from a Grand Forks mall parking lot in November 2003. Her body was found in a ravine near Crookston the following April. Authorities said she had been beaten, raped and stabbed.

Defense attorneys say several factors favor a sentence of life in prison for Rodriguez. They say he was sexually abused as a child and may have suffered brain damage from farm chemicals, leading to psychological and behavioral problems.

Rodriguez's mother and two of his sisters testified last week about their struggles as a poor migrant farm family, living in a house with no electricity or running water. They said children teased Rodriguez about his race and physical appearance.

"It's not so easy to put aside that kind of heartfelt feeling of a mother and his background," Daly said Sunday. "I think it will have some effect on the jurors … and you only need to affect one juror."

Prosecutors say another factor favoring the death penalty is that jurors found Rodriguez caused serious injury in three earlier assaults on women.

The government also believes that testimony by friends and family of Sjodin in the last phase of the trial points to a death sentence.

Daly said he expects the case to be appealed, whether Rodriguez receives the death penalty or life in prison. Death penalty appeals would be more prolonged, Daly said.

"It's possible her parents will never see him executed," he said.