GERALD PIZZUTO COULD BE IDAHO’S FIRST SINCE 2012
After exhausting his appeals in November 2020, the state of Idaho has been searching for an execution warrant for Gerald Ross Pizzuto, Jr. ever since. They finally got it, but Pizzuto is in hospice care
UPDATE, 5/18/21: Gerald Pizzuto Jr. has been granted a stay by the Idaho district court for the 2nd district to allow time for a clemency hearing. The hearing is scheduled for the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole’s November 2021 hearing session.
Idaho — A spokesman for the Idaho Attorney General’s office has reported that a judge on Wednesday has signed off on a death warrant for Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr. Pizzuto, 65 has been on death row since 1986 for the murder of two in a remote cabin in Idaho county in 1985. He lost his final appeal on November 2, 2020, and was able to be scheduled for execution. That finally happened Thursday, and June 2 was the scheduled date.
The state of Idaho became the second out of two states that plan to execute an individual this year, formerly third before Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania granted a reprieve to Paul Gamboa Taylor on May 7. However, once the news that Gerald Pizzuto was scheduled for execution reached The Marshall Project, they pointed out that Pizzuto is currently confined to a wheelchair and is in hospice care.
The state of Idaho hasn’t executed an inmate for nine years when Richard Albert Leavitt was executed by lethal injection, the only authorized method of execution in the state, at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Ada County on June 12, 2012. Since then, no executions have been scheduled.
Pizzuto is the one out of four on Idaho death row that have exhausted their appeals out of eight total on death row. His attorneys filed a clemency petition on May 11 on his behalf to the Idaho Pardons & Paroles Commission. Pizzuto has stated that he’d rather die naturally than be executed.
THE CRIME
Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr. has killed a total of four victims, all killed in 1985. Only two of which he was sentenced to death for. Pizzuto, an Orland, California native, was allegedly abused by his stepfather immensely as a child. He fled to Washington state in his 20s. There, he was one of three suspects who were arrested for the homicides of Rita Dury on March 16, 1985, and John Jones just two weeks later. Dury and Jones were both shot to death in their own homes. Pizzuto, initially identified as, “Jerry Gilbertson,” escaped from custody after being arrested in connection with the murders, stole a tourist’s pickup truck, and fled to Idaho.
In July of that same year, Pizzuto had located a cabin 100 miles northeast of Boise in which Alberta Herndon and her nephew Delbert Herndon were prospecting. Prosecutors say that Pizzuto was armed with a .22 caliber rifle. He bound their wrists and legs inside the cabin and stole money from them. He then bludgeoned both but only shot Delbert. Idaho authorities launched a sweeping manhunt on July 26, 1985, in search of Pizzuto in connection to the murders that occurred earlier that month. He was arrested three days later and taken into custody. Pizzuto was officially sentenced to death in May 1986.
CONTROVERSY
As stated before, Pizzuto is in hospice care suffering from advanced bladder tumors, type two diabetes, and multiple variants of lung and heart diseases and is near death. It was reported by his defense team that he was prescribed 42 different drugs in the past year and that his medical records say that he has, “begun experiencing memory loss and mild disorientation associated with the death process.” Whether that plays a factor in whether his execution is carried out is not certain.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Idaho’s current lethal injection protocol is a one-drug process consisting of pentobarbital, a drug most commonly used in modern executions. There is a bit of controversy with the use of pentobarbital, however. Pentobarbital was introduced near the end of 2010 due to a sodium thiopental shortage in the country that required states to look for alternatives to the sedative.
Pentobarbital, a sedative, is usually used in either a one-drug or three-drug process. In the one-drug process, which has been used in eight states, an amount of pentobarbital would be injected into the inmate that would be enough to render them unconscious. To finish it off, while the inmate is still unconscious, a more lethal dose of the drug is injected into the inmate, killing them.
In a three-drug process, which has been used more widely, inmates would first be injected with an anesthetic which can be either midazolam or pentobarbital to render them unconscious. Then, pancuronium bromide, a paralytic agent which can also be known as Pavulon, is injected to make sure that the inmate can’t feel the pain. Finally, potassium chloride is injected to stop the heart and complete the execution.
That’s what is supposed to happen. The drug has been known to not be sufficient enough to make the inmate fully unconscious in some cases. For instance, the execution of Brian Keith Terrell in Georgia in 2015 used the one-drug process. It was reported that Terrell winced several times, apparently in pain. Some have even said that they feel like their body is, “burning up,” due to the drug.
In other cases, execution teams have had a hard time finding a usable vein to execute inmates that are terminally ill. In 2018, the state of Alabama attempted to execute terminally ill inmate Doyle Lee Hamm. The execution team that was appointed to the execution tried for 2.5 hours to find a usable vein for lethal injection. With the midnight deadline to start the execution approaching, it was called off and Hamm was left with many puncture marks on his skin and a punctured bladder. Hamm is still on death row.
It has also been viewed as a financial problem. It’s statistically proven that it costs enormously more for a state to execute an inmate rather than keep them in prison for the rest of their life. Pizzuto’s lawyers have claimed that Idaho’s death penalty is, “an unnecessary exercise, with significant operational and personnel costs for the State.”
THE FUTURE FOR PIZZUTO
It’s safe to say that Pizzuto will not recover from his illnesses considering the severity. He is currently in hospice care and near death, but it is not for certain what will kill him first, the state of Idaho or his cancer. With his execution approaching in less than a month, anything could happen. Although, due to the largely republican state and what has happened with past executions, he will most likely be executed if he doesn’t die before his execution date. Pizzuto will remain in hospice care until then.
