FARGO (AP) - Prosecutors can use Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.'s earlier convictions for attempted kidnapping and sex crimes to pursue the death penalty against him, U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson says.

Rodriguez, 52, a repeat sex offender from Crookston, Minn., is charged with kidnapping resulting in the death of Dru Sjodin, 22, a University of North Dakota student who disappeared from a Grand Forks shopping mall in November 2003. Her body was found in a ravine near Crookston in April 2004.

Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial next July. His lawyers asked Erickson earlier to bar capital punishment in the case, saying his prior convictions did not qualify him for the death penalty. They also asked that the prosecution not be allowed to use a psychiatric expert to talk about Rodriguez's future risk to society.

Erickson denied the motions to limit factors used by a jury in determining whether Rodriguez should be executed if he is convicted.

"We're still looking at the order and discussing the meaning of everything," said Richard Ney, one of Rodriguez's lawyers.

U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley said he was pleased with the judge's rulings because they set parameters in both the guilt and penalty phases of Rodriguez's trial.

Rodriguez was convicted twice on rape-related charges in the 1970s. He also served 23 years in a Minnesota prison for the attempted kidnapping and stabbing of a woman walking through her Crookston neighborhood in 1980. He was released from prison about six months before Sjodin disappeared.

Defense attorneys said the law cited in the government's death penalty notice does not apply to Rodriguez because it does not narrow the class of people who could be eligible for the death penalty.

Erickson wrote in his ruling that cases cited by the defense do not apply in Rodriguez's case. He also said the defense's claims that victims in Rodriguez's prior rape-related convictions did not suffer "serious bodily injury" are not sufficient.

Erickson ordered prosecutors to provide information they plan to use at trial regarding the victims to the defense 90 days prior to Rodriguez's trial. After reviewing the information, Rodriguez's attorneys can file a similar motion to strike the convictions from a death penalty phase if it occurs.

Psychiatric testimony has been allowed in other cases, and Erickson said he could find no reason to depart "from well-established precedent."

The judge also denied a motion by prosecutors to reconsider providing the defense with detailed information about the aggravating factors used in pursuing the death penalty.

"The government has not brought any new cases to the court's attention or any case law that the court was not already aware of when it made its decision," Erickson said in his ruling.

Attorneys plan to debate several more motions addressing evidentiary and procedural issues at a hearing scheduled for today in federal court in Fargo.