FARGO - Lawyers in the trial of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. have offered suggestions to U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson for instructions to jurors before they begin deliberating.

Rodriguez, 53, a convicted sex offender from Crookston, Minn., is charged with kidnapping resulting in the death of Dru Sjodin. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty if he's convicted.

The government alleges that Sjodin, 22, a University of North Dakota student from Pequot Lakes, Minn., was abducted from a Grand Forks parking lot, stabbed and raped and left to die in a ravine near Crookston. Defense attorneys say Rodriguez should not be charged in federal court because there's no proof Sjodin was alive when she left the parking lot.

In a document filed Wednesday, Rodriguez's lawyers said they want Erickson to tell jurors that it's possible to refile charges in state court. Their proposed instructions say that kidnapping charges may be filed three years after the crime and that there is no time limit for filing murder charges.

"A North Dakota prosecutor can file murder charges at any time," the jury instructions proposed by the defense say.

Prosecutors want Erickson to inform jurors that federal law applies if Sjodin was alive at the moment she was moved from the parking lot.

"The transportation of the victim began when she was willfully moved any distance whatsoever from the precise point of her abduction," the government document says. "The United States need not prove that the defendant knew that he was crossing a state line with the victim or the victim's body."

Prosecutors also want jurors to hear that the possible sentence "must never be considered" when deciding the verdict. If Rodriguez is found guilty, a separate hearing would determine whether he should receive death or life in prison without parole.

Jurors are off until Monday, when Erickson said he expects prosecutors to wrap up their case. Michael McGee, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Sjodin, is scheduled to be one of the last witnesses for the government.

Erickson scheduled a hearing Monday morning to determine the credibility of McGee's testimony. Defense attorneys are questioning McGee's evidence that supports the government's claim that Sjodin was raped.

Prosecutors have called 51 witnesses so far. Erickson put the trial on hold after Tuesday's proceedings so he and the lawyers could work on proposed jury instructions and other legal matters.