Death Penalty News

Idaho will once again pursue executing an inmate for the 1st time in almost a decade. The state’s parole board backed reducing a convicted killer’s death sentence to life in prison, but Gov. Brad Little immediately rejected their recommendation. The Commission of Pardons and Parole announced the ruling Thursday evening on its website, ending a month of speculation over the fate of double-murderer Gerald Pizzuto. It was just the second time the state’s parole board had recommended clemency for a death row inmate since the state reinstituted capital punishment in 1977. The seven-member board voted 4-3 in favor of recommending clemency, according to Little in a statement. Such deliberations are held behind closed doors and normally restricted from public release, per state law. “The severity of Pizzuto’s brutal, senseless and indiscriminate killing spree strongly warrants against commutation,” Little said in the statement. “Therefore, I respectfully deny the commission’s recommendation so...

Inmate Gerald Pizzuto ’s death sentence was reduced to life in prison by an Idaho district court judge Friday — a ruling with far-reaching implications for the state after the judge found Gov. Brad Little has no power to reject a clemency recommendation in murder cases under the Idaho Constitution.  In a legal challenge over Little’s decision, Judge Jay Gaskill, of Nez Perce County, ruled that the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole is the only body with the authority to commute an inmate’s sentence stemming from a murder conviction. The governor, meanwhile, possesses final say on cases of treason and impeachment.  In December, the Republican governor denied the parole board’s recommendation — made in a 4-3 vote — to reduce Pizzuto’s sentence to life in prison. Gaskill referred to a constitutional amendment in the 1980s regarding clemency, and concluded that the governor was never granted such overarching power. “There is no indication that the founders or the people of the...

Judge: Death row inmate's constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment may have been violated after officials repeatedly scheduled his execution BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge in Idaho ruled a longtime death row inmate may have a legal claim that the state violated his constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment when officials repeatedly scheduled his execution without the means to carry it out. Idaho has sought to execute Gerald Pizzuto by lethal injection five times since his 1986 first-degree murder conviction, including three times in the past two years. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill for the District of Idaho last week rejected the state’s request to dismiss Pizzuto’s claim that rescheduling his execution several times violated his Eighth Amendment rights, allowing the case to move forward.

A district court judge has denied a request from an Idaho man on death row to delay his execution scheduled for December. Idaho County District Court Judge Jay Gaskill heard arguments Tuesday morning on a motion to stay the execution of Gerald Pizzuto Jr. and issued his decision later in the day. The Idaho Department of Correction served 66-year-old Pizzuto with a death warrant last week. His execution, scheduled for Dec. 15., would be the state’s first death penalty execution in a decade. Pizzuto was convicted of two 1985 murders in Idaho County. He also has terminal cancer. Lawyers defending Pizzuto with the Federal Defender Services of Idaho asked Gaskill to delay the execution until pending legal challenges are complete. Pizzuto’s legal team has until Jan. 26 to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an Idaho Supreme Court decision, which found the governor – not the Commission on Pardons and Parole – has the final authority on death row clemency decisions. “I think it’s sufficient t...

Idaho U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill has ruled in favor of death-row-prisoner Gerald Pizzuto, indefinitely pausing his March 2023 execution date, and granting him a hearing in his claim that the state of Idaho violates his Constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment by repeatedly scheduling execution dates while knowing the state does not have the means to carry it out. “As Pizzuto describes it,” Judge Winmill wrote, “defendants’ repeated rescheduling of his execution is like dry firing in a mock execution or a game of Russian roulette… With each new death warrant comes another spin of the revolver’s cylinder, restarting the 30-day countdown until the trigger pulls. Not knowing whether a round is chambered, Pizzuto must relive his last days in a delirium of uncertainty until the click sounds and the cylinder spins again.”

“I don’t understand trying to kill somebody who is already dying,” says the sister of Idaho death-row prisoner Gerald Pizzuto. Gerald Pizzuto is near death, but it’s unclear whether the cancer or the state of Idaho will get to him first. For more than a year, the 65-year-old has been in hospice care on Idaho’s death row, suffering from advanced bladder tumors, along with Type 2 diabetes, and a variety of heart and lung diseases.  According to his defense team, he’s been prescribed 42 different drugs in the last year, and his medical records say he has “begun experiencing memory loss and mild disorientation associated with the death process.” But on Thursday, the Idaho attorney general’s office confirmed the state’s plan to execute him on June 2, for the 1985 murders of two gold prospectors in the mountains north of Boise. If it goes through as planned, this will be Idaho’s first execution in nine years. Given the likelihood that Pizzuto will soon die of natural causes, his case may...

Days after Idaho Gov. Brad Little rejected the state parole board’s recommendation to reduce an inmate’s death penalty sentence to one of life in prison, lawyers for the inmate are questioning whether Little had the power to do so. In a federal lawsuit filed Monday, attorneys for Gerald Pizzuto, a convicted double murderer with multiple medical conditions, said Little’s denial to take Pizzuto off death row violated the Idaho Constitution . “The Idaho Constitution gives the governor no say in the commutation process, and Mr. Pizzuto’s attorneys are seeking to stop the state from pursuing a death warrant until the legal questions surrounding the governor’s intervention are fully resolved,” the Federal Defender Services of Idaho said a statement Monday. RELATED |  Idaho parole board recommended sparing an inmate from death row. Gov. Little denied it The Idaho Attorney General’s Office declined to comment. The Commission of Pardons and Parole on Thursday in a 4-3 vote recommended cleme...

BOISE, IDAHO -- A state judge is weighing whether Idaho's Constitution allows the governor to reject a parole board's recommendation when it comes to commuting a death sentence — a decision that may determine if a longtime death row inmate will be executed. 2nd District Judge Jay Gaskill heard arguments in Gerald Pizzuto Jr.'s case on Thursday.  Pizzuto, 66, has been on death row for more than three decades after being convicted for the July 1985 slayings of two gold prospectors at a cabin north of McCall. He was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection last year, but the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole agreed to grant him a clemency hearing.  Late last year, the board voted four to three to recommended that Pizzuto's sentence be changed to life in prison. In their recommendation, the parole board cited Pizzuto's poor health — he has terminal bladder cancer, heart disease and diabetes as well as decreased intellectual function — and said commutation would...

Despite the horrific nature of his crimes, Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr. should be allowed to die a natural death rather than be executed by the state of Idaho. Pizzuto, 65, has terminal bladder cancer, diabetes and heart disease, and is in a wheelchair, according to The Associated Press. He’s been on hospice care since 2019, when doctors said he likely wouldn’t survive for another year. Pizzuto’s attorneys filed a clemency petition on his behalf to the Idaho Pardons & Parole Commission. The commission should grant that request, and members should do it quickly. Pizzuto is scheduled for execution on June 2. We recognize and acknowledge the atrocity of Pizzuto’s crimes. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1985 killings of Berta Herndon, 58, and her nephew Del Herndon, 37, at a remote Idaho County cabin. Armed with a .22 caliber rifle, Pizzuto tied the victims’ wrists behind their backs and bound their legs to steal their money. He bludgeoned them both, and Del Herndon was also...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Supreme Court says the governor has the authority to reject a parole board’s commutation recommendation for death row inmate Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr. The decision means the state can seek a death warrant for Pizzuto. Once issued, the warrant would set Pizzuto’s execution by lethal injection in the next 30 days. Deborah A. Czuba, supervising attorney for the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defenders of Idaho, said Pizzuto’s defense team was “disappointed and devastated” by the ruling. Czuba said she hopes Little takes a closer look at all the reasons the parole commission cited when it recommended clemency. “Any aggressive pursuit of a death warrant at this point for Mr. Pizzuto would not only be barbaric, but also a clear waste of time, resources, and taxpayer money,” Czuba said in a press release. “We believe the Commission of Pardons and Parole made a compassionate and reasoned decision, and that there is still time for Gov. Little to take the wise and...