Idaho Pardons Commission Holds Clemency Hearing for Terminally Ill Death-Row Prisoner in Hospice Care

The sis­ter of a ter­mi­nal­ly ill death-row pris­on­er who has been in hos­pice care since 2019 has asked the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole to rec­om­mend that he be grant­ed clemen­cy so he can ​“die on God’s time.” 

In emo­tion­al tes­ti­mo­ny pre­sent­ed vir­tu­al­ly on November 30, 2021, Angelinna Pizzuto told the parole board mem­bers that her broth­er, Gerald Pizzuto, Jr. (pic­tured), had been repeat­ed­ly beat­en and raped by their step­fa­ther through­out his child­hood, and that social ser­vice agen­cies had failed to inter­vene. ​“Please, I’m here to ask you to pro­tect him now,” she said.

Pizzuto, 65, who suf­fers from 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, appeared at the hear­ing in per­son in a wheel­chair. He has a his­to­ry of brain dam­age since birth and trau­mat­ic head injuries that left him comatose as a boy, has had two heart attacks, and has had four stents implant­ed around his heart. He was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1986 for the rob­bery and mur­der of two gold prospec­tors in an Idaho County cabin.

On April 9, 2021, Pizzuto’s lawyers filed a clemen­cy peti­tion pre­sent­ing evi­dence depict­ing his hor­rif­ic child­hood, his ter­mi­nal med­ical con­di­tion, and that he may be intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. His con­vic­tion and death sen­tence were also taint­ed by a secret deal bro­kered between his pros­e­cu­tor, his tri­al judge, and the co-defendant’s coun­sel in which the co-defen­dant tes­ti­fied against Pizzuto in exchange for a lenient sen­tence. Under Idaho law at the time of tri­al, the judge served as the sen­tencer and, with­out dis­clos­ing his involve­ment in the deal, sen­tenced Pizzuto to death.

One month lat­er, on May 6, 2021, Idaho issued a death war­rant sched­ul­ing Pizzuto’s exe­cu­tion for June 2, 2021, but his exe­cu­tion was stayed on May 18, 2021, after the par­dons com­mis­sion grant­ed his appli­ca­tion for a clemen­cy hear­ing and set the hear­ing date for its November 2021 term. It was just the sec­ond time the com­mis­sion had agreed to con­duct a clemen­cy hear­ing in a death penal­ty case since Idaho rein­stat­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1977. 

Assistant Federal Defender Bruce Livingston, who rep­re­sent­ed Pizzuto in the clemen­cy hear­ing, told the parole board that ​“The tak­ing of his life through state-sanc­tioned exe­cu­tion is unnec­es­sary.” Citing Pizzuto’s med­ical con­di­tion, Livingston urged the board to allow him to die in hos­pice. ​“God will take him short­ly in due course,” Livingston said. 

Idaho is one of sev­en death-penal­ty states in which an admin­is­tra­tive board or com­mis­sion must rec­om­mend clemen­cy before the gov­er­nor has the author­i­ty to spare a death-row prisoner’s life. If a major­i­ty of the parole board rec­om­mends clemen­cy, Governor Brad Little will decide whether Pizzuto will be per­mit­ted to die in hos­pice or will face exe­cu­tion by the state.