Idaho Court Rules Governor Lacked Authority to Reject Commutation of Gerald Pizzuto’s Death Sentence

An Idaho tri­al court judge has resen­tenced Gerald Pizzuto, Jr. to life with­out parole, rul­ing that Governor Brad Little lacked legal author­i­ty to reject the state Commission of Pardons and Parole’s rec­om­men­da­tion of clemen­cy for the 65-year-old ter­mi­nal­ly ill death-row prisoner. 

In a nine­teen-page deci­sion, issued February 4, 2022, Second Judicial District Court Judge Jay Gaskill held that the Idaho state con­sti­tu­tion vests exclu­sive pow­er over com­mu­ta­tion deci­sions in the Commission of Pardons and Parole, and that Pizzuto’s death sen­tences for the mur­ders of two gold prospec­tors had been over­turned by the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole’s 4 – 3 vote on December 30, 2021 rec­om­mend­ing clemen­cy. “[I]n light of the Commission’s deci­sion that the sen­tences should be com­mut­ed to life in prison with­out parole,” Gaskill wrote, ​“Pizzuto‘s death sen­tences … are illegal.” 

Little said he would appeal the ruling. 

Idaho had pre­vi­ous­ly sched­uled Pizzuto’s exe­cu­tion for June 2, 2021, but Gaskill grant­ed a stay until the con­clu­sion of com­mu­ta­tion pro­ceed­ings in the case. Gaskill wrote that the issues regard­ing the governor’s role in the clemen­cy process and the governor’s expect­ed appeal ​“are as a result of the com­mu­ta­tion pro­ceed­ing in this mat­ter.” Granting a motion filed by Pizzuto’s lawyers to pre­clude the issuance of the death war­rant, Gaskill reit­er­at­ed, ​“This Court will not issue a death war­rant in this mat­ter while there are appeals pend­ing in the case.”

The Clemency Proceedings

On April 9, 2021, Pizzuto’s lawyers filed a clemen­cy peti­tion that sought to com­mute his sen­tence to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of 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. Pizzuto has been in hos­pice care con­fined to a wheel­chair since 2019, suf­fer­ing from late-stage blad­der can­cer, chron­ic heart and coro­nary artery dis­ease, coro­nary obstruc­tive pul­monary dis­ease, 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. 

The par­dons com­mis­sion sched­uled a hear­ing on Pizzuto’s peti­tion for its November 2021 hear­ing ses­sion — only the sec­ond time since Idaho rein­tro­duced the death penal­ty in the 1970s that it had agreed to con­sid­er clemen­cy in a death-penal­ty case. Judge Gaskin then stayed Pizzuto’s exe­cu­tion pend­ing com­ple­tion of the commutation process.

The par­dons com­mis­sion con­duct­ed a hear­ing on Pizzuto’s peti­tion on November 30, 2021 and issued its deci­sion on December 30, 2021. ​“This rec­om­men­da­tion is one of mer­cy due to Mr. Pizzuto’s cur­rent med­ical con­di­tion and evi­dence of decreased intel­lec­tu­al func­tion­ing,” the major­i­ty wrote. ​“Mr. Pizzuto has served 35 years in prison and his phys­i­cal con­di­tion, as well as the fact that he will nev­er be released from prison, leaves him as very lit­tle threat to oth­ers.” Governor Little imme­di­ate­ly issued a let­ter reject­ing the rec­om­men­da­tion. Pizzuto’s attor­neys chal­lenged Little’s deci­sion, argu­ing that the commission’s rec­om­men­da­tion was final.

An Idaho statute gives the gov­er­nor final author­i­ty over clemen­cy deci­sions in death-penal­ty cas­es. However, Idaho’s con­sti­tu­tion men­tions only a governor’s author­i­ty to grant reprieves or respites of lim­it­ed dura­tion. The appar­ent con­flict between the statute and the con­sti­tu­tion has nev­er before reached the courts because Pizzuto’s case is the first time an Idaho gov­er­nor has been at odds with the Commission of Pardons and Parole in a death-penal­ty case. The commission’s 1996 rec­om­men­da­tion of clemen­cy for Donald Paradis was accept­ed by Governor Phil Batt. Paradis was later exonerated.

Judge Gaskill agreed with Pizzuto that Little had no author­i­ty to veto the commission’s deci­sion. ​“Article IV, Section of the Idaho Constitution does not pro­vide the gov­er­nor of the state with the pow­er of com­mu­ta­tion, there­fore, the cur­rent state of Pizzuto‘s death sen­tences — in light of the Commission’s deci­sion that the sen­tences should be com­mut­ed to life in prison with­out parole — are ille­gal,” Gaskill wrote. ​“This court finds that the commission’s pow­er to issue com­mu­ta­tions applies to all cas­es of offens­es against the state except trea­son or con­vic­tion on impeachment.” 

A state­ment issued by the governor’s office said, ​“Gov. Little will chal­lenge this rul­ing because the state must have the abil­i­ty to car­ry out the death penal­ty as ordered by the court in this case. This mat­ter is now left for a high­er court to ultimately decide.”

Assistant fed­er­al defend­er Deborah Czuba, speak­ing for Pizzuto’s defense team, react­ed to the rul­ing, say­ing, ​“We are grate­ful that the court upheld the just and mer­ci­ful deci­sion by the parole com­mis­sion to let Jerry Pizzuto die in prison. As the court rec­og­nized, the Idaho Constitution wise­ly leaves com­mu­ta­tion deci­sions to the com­mis­sion­ers, who the gov­er­nor appoints based on their judg­ment and exper­tise in such mat­ters. The peo­ple of Idaho have not giv­en the gov­er­nor the pow­er to inter­fere in the com­mu­ta­tion process, and as the court found, he act­ed illegally here.” 

Czuba added that the legal team hopes ​“the state will now do the right thing and final­ly allow a dying man to pass away of nat­ur­al caus­es in prison, rather than con­tin­u­ing to fight for an unnec­es­sary exe­cu­tion through cost­ly lit­i­ga­tion at taxpayer expense.”