Court Halts Execution of Terminally Ill Idaho Death-Row Prisoner

An Idaho tri­al court has stayed the sched­uled June 2, 2021 exe­cu­tion of Gerald Pizzuto, Jr. (pic­tured), halt­ing state pros­e­cu­tors’ efforts to put the hos­pice-bound ter­mi­nal­ly ill pris­on­er to death before his stage‑4 can­cer can take his life and state offi­cials can con­sid­er his peti­tion for clemency.

On April 9, Pizzuto’s lawyers filed a clemen­cy peti­tion, seek­ing to com­mute his sen­tence to life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty parole based upon his ter­mi­nal ill­ness, brain dam­age from head injuries sus­tained in seri­ous acci­dents that left him comatose or uncon­scious, and a bru­tal­ly abu­sive child­hood in which he was repeat­ed­ly beat­en, raped, and emo­tion­al­ly abused. The Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole has agreed to review Pizzuto’s peti­tion, sched­ul­ing a hear­ing on his case dur­ing its November 2021 hear­ing ses­sion. The stay order, issued by Idaho Second Judicial District Judge Jay Gaskill on May 18, bars the state from attempt­ing to exe­cute Pizzuto ​“until the con­clu­sion of com­mu­ta­tion pro­ceed­ings relat­ed to Mr. Pizzuto’s cur­rent commutation petition.”

It is far from cer­tain, how­ev­er, that Pizzuto will live that long. He has been in hos­pice care con­fined to a wheel­chair for more than a year, suf­fer­ing from late-stage blad­der can­cer, chron­ic heart and coro­nary artery dis­ease, coro­nary obstruc­tive pul­monary dis­ease (COPD), and Type 2 dia­betes with relat­ed nerve dam­age to his legs and feet. He has had two heart attacks and has had four stents implant­ed around his heart. In December 2019, doc­tors esti­mat­ed his life expectan­cy at less than a year, and in March, his prison doc­tor not­ed that Pizzuto had begun expe­ri­enc­ing mem­o­ry loss and dis­ori­en­ta­tion asso­ci­at­ed with the process of dying.

“Let his immi­nent death from nat­ur­al caus­es take him, with­out going through an unnec­es­sary, expen­sive, resource-con­sum­ing and trau­ma-induc­ing exe­cu­tion,” his lawyers wrote in the clemency petition.

Pizzuto’s case illus­trates prob­lems that have become increas­ing­ly per­va­sive in the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty in the United States. Like most pris­on­ers who have recent­ly been exe­cut­ed, he expe­ri­enced chron­ic trau­ma through­out his child­hood. His case also was marred by offi­cial mis­con­duct: the tri­al judge bro­kered a secret deal with Pizzuto’s co-defen­dant, who tes­ti­fied against him and lied about the lenient sen­tence he would receive in exchange. The aging of death-row pop­u­la­tions also is caus­ing increas­ing prob­lems for pris­ons, as med­ical con­di­tions present prob­lems for car­ry­ing out lethal injec­tions and men­tal con­di­tions like demen­tia may ren­der pris­on­ers incom­pe­tent to be executed.

Pizzuto’s lawyers have asked the Commission on Pardons and Parole ​“to delve deeply into his ghast­ly child­hood, his­to­ry of brain dam­age since birth and brain injuries as a boy, as well as his cur­rent, ter­mi­nal health condition.”

Pizzuto’s Horrific Upbringing
 

Pizzuto’s clemen­cy peti­tion depicts a hor­rif­ic child­hood, ask­ing the Commission of Pardons and Parole to grant mer­cy ​“for a boy whose life was stolen from him by a sadis­tic step­fa­ther who bound, raped and sodom­ized him, and beat him until he was black and blue if he dared cry from the pain.” Pizzuto’s sib­lings say that, begin­ning when he was 5 or 6, he would be awak­ened in the mid­dle of the night by his step­fa­ther, who would tie him up with exten­sion cords in the garage and rape him. The step­fa­ther also sex­u­al­ly vic­tim­ized Pizzuto, charg­ing oth­er adult men $20 for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to rape him. He was repeat­ed­ly beat­en with a cat­tle prod, horse crop, and 2x4. His sis­ter, Elsie Pizzuto, told a defense inves­ti­ga­tor, ​“You could be asleep in your bed and be yanked out by your hair in the mid­dle of the night and drug off.” His sib­lings said that their step­fa­ther moved the fam­i­ly and changed their last names to avoid inves­ti­ga­tion into the abuse.

In a video­tape pre­sent­ed to the par­dons com­mis­sion, Pizzuto’s sis­ter Angie Pizzuto said: ​“Your mom and dad are sup­posed to pro­tect you. They’re sup­posed to feed you, and they’re sup­posed to clothe you, and they’re sup­posed to keep the mon­sters away from you. But the prob­lem is, some­times the par­ents are the monsters.”

In addi­tion to the chron­ic abuse and trau­ma Pizzuto expe­ri­enced, he also suf­fered from brain dam­age, begin­ning at the time of his pre­ma­ture birth. That brain dam­age was exac­er­bat­ed by the abuse he endured as a child, by a head injury he sus­tained when he was 2½ years old as a result of a fall down a flight of stairs that left him comatose, and from anoth­er head injury suf­fered when he was four­teen in a motor­cy­cle acci­dent that left him hos­pi­tal­ized and uncon­scious. ​“Once a bat­tered and wound­ed lit­tle boy, Jerry is now a dying and bro­ken old man,” his clemen­cy peti­tion states. ​“While it is too late to save that lit­tle boy, it is not too late to show Jerry Pizzuto mercy.”

The Secret Deal to Implicate Pizzuto

Pizzuto’s death sen­tence is also taint­ed by pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al and judi­cial mis­con­duct. In a peti­tion for a writ of habeas cor­pus and an appli­ca­tion for stay of exe­cu­tion filed in the United States Supreme Court on May 10, Pizzuto’s legal team argued that he is enti­tled to judi­cial review of evi­dence that his pros­e­cu­tor, his tri­al judge, and the co-defendant’s coun­sel met secret­ly to bro­ker a deal for the co-defen­dant in which he would tes­ti­fy against Pizzuto in exchange for a lenient sen­tence. The pros­e­cu­tion then delib­er­ate­ly elicit­ed false tes­ti­mo­ny from the co-defen­dant — which the judge knew to be per­ju­ri­ous — that he expect­ed to be sen­tenced to life in prison for his role in the mur­der. Under the deal made with pros­e­cu­tors and the judge, the co-defen­dant was told he would serve about 14 years in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny. He actu­al­ly served 12. Neither the judge nor the pros­e­cu­tor dis­closed the deal to Pizzuto’s lawyers and nei­ther cor­rect­ed the co-defendant’s perjured testimony.

Prosecutors filed a response to Pizzuto’s peti­tion on May 21, argu­ing that he had strate­gi­cal­ly delayed in bring­ing the claim and that, even if his alle­ga­tions were true, there was no rea­son­able like­li­hood that dis­clo­sure of the deal would have changed the out­come of the trial.

As the aver­age age of death-row pris­on­ers increas­es, cas­es like his have become increas­ing­ly com­mon. In 2017, Ohio called off the exe­cu­tion of Alva Campbell, a ter­mi­nal­ly-ill pris­on­er, because they could not find a vein suit­able for the IV. Campbell died of his med­ical con­di­tions in 2018. Alabama pris­on­er Vernon Madison’s 2018 exe­cu­tion was halt­ed by the U.S. Supreme Court to allow a low­er court to deter­mine if his demen­tia ren­dered him inel­i­gi­ble to be exe­cut­ed. He could no longer remem­ber the crime for which he was sen­tenced to death. Madison died in 2020, before the low­er court could rule on his case.

Pizzuto’s case is fur­ther com­pli­cat­ed by the state’s ques­tion­able con­duct in obtain­ing exe­cu­tion drugs in pri­or exe­cu­tions and its refusal to inform the defense what drugs it intends to use to exe­cute him. ​“If the idea of exe­cut­ing a dying man for a crime com­mit­ted in 1985 for no appar­ent rea­son oth­er than jus­ti­fy­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment leaves you a bit queasy, think of the lengths Idaho will like­ly go to achieve it,” Lewiston Tribune edi­to­r­i­al writer Marty Trillhaase wrote on May 16. ​“Idaho’s Department of Correction has turned to the back alley,” Trillhaase said, cit­ing news reports that cor­rec­tions offi­cials ​“exchanged a suit­case filled with more than $10,000 in cash at a Tacoma Walmart park­ing lot for the lethal com­pounds used” in car­ry­ing out the state’s last exe­cu­tion on June 12, 2012.