Idaho Supreme Court won’t reconsider death row clemency case – East Idaho News

BOISE (AP) — The Idaho Supreme Court docket says it is not going to rethink the clemency case of a terminally ailing man who’s going through execution for his function within the 1985 slayings of two gold prospectors close to McCall.

The excessive court docket made the choice Friday in Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr.’s case. The choice means the state stays free to hunt a demise warrant for Pizzuto. As soon as issued, the warrant would set Pizzuto’s execution by deadly injection within the subsequent 30 days.

Deborah A. Czuba, the pinnacle of the Federal Defender Providers of Idaho’s capital case unit, mentioned in a ready assertion that the Idaho Supreme Court docket resolution was disappointing.

“There’s nonetheless time for Gov. Brad Little to just accept the advice of his parole commissioners and let Mr. Pizzuto die a pure demise in jail,” Czuba mentioned. “If not, our hope is that the State can have sufficient grace to attend a minimum of till after the Thanksgiving and Christmas season earlier than making Division of Correction staff take part in a useless and traumatizing execution in the course of the holidays.”

Pizzuto has spent greater than three a long time on demise row and was initially scheduled to be put to demise in June of 2021. He requested for clemency final yr as a result of he has terminal bladder most cancers, coronary heart illness, diabetes and decreased mental perform.

The Idaho Fee of Pardons and Parole voted 4-3 to advocate that his sentence be modified to life in jail, citing the torture and abuse he skilled as a toddler and his well being issues. However Idaho Gov. Brad Little rejected the advice, noting the brutal nature of Pizzuto’s crimes and mentioning that the slayings occurred shortly after Pizzuto was launched from jail after serving time for rape.

Pizzuto’s attorneys appealed the matter to the Idaho Supreme Court docket, contending that the governor lacked the authority to reject the fee’s advice. However the excessive court docket dominated in August that the governor’s resolution to overrule the advice was authorized.