04 December 2022 :
Pizzuto’s execution canceled as state can’t find lethal injection drugs
The Dec. 15 execution of Gerald Pizzuto Jr. has been delayed, as the Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) doesn’t have the chemicals to carry it out. Pizzuto was convicted in the 1985 murders of a woman and her nephew in Idaho County.
IDOC served Pizzuto with a death warrant earlier this month, after the Idaho Supreme Court upheld Gov. Brad Little’s decision to overturn a recommendation for Pizzuto’s clemency, issued by the Commission on Pardons and Parole last year.
On Nov. 16, the same day it issued the warrant, IDOC said it did not have the chemicals needed to carry out Pizzuto’s execution and was working on securing them.
On Monday, Pizzuto’s lawyers with the Federal Defender Services of Idaho said IDOC had missed its own deadline – 20 days before an execution – to obtain the drugs it planned on using. An IDOC spokesperson declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.
On Wednesday, IDOC notified the court it still did not have the chemicals necessary to carry out the execution on Dec. 15 and it would allow the death warrant for Pizzuto to expire. Lethal injection is the only legal method of execution in Idaho.
