Idaho OKs death warrant for man who killed gold prospectors
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho on Wednesday issued a death warrant for a terminally ill man facing execution for his role in the 1985 slayings of two gold prospectors near McCall in central Idaho.
The Idaho Department of Correction issued the warrant to 66-year-old Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr. The warrant sets Pizzuto’s execution by lethal injection on Dec. 15, but officials say they don’t have the chemicals needed to carry out the execution, and are trying to obtain them.
Pizzuto has spent more than three decades on death row and was originally scheduled to be put to death in June of 2021. He asked for clemency because he has terminal bladder cancer, heart disease, diabetes and decreased intellectual function.
The Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole recommended that his sentence be changed to life in prison. But Republican Gov. Brad Little rejected the commission’s recommendation.
Pizzuto’s attorneys appealed the matter to the Idaho Supreme Court, contending that the governor lacked the authority to reject the commission’s recommendation.
But the high court ruled in August that the governor’s decision to overrule the recommendation was legal. Then the court last month declined to reconsider the clemency case.
Pizzuto was camping with two other men near McCall when he encountered 58-year-old Berta Herndon and her 37-year-old nephew Del Herndon, who were prospecting in the area.
Prosecutors said Pizzuto, armed with a .22 caliber rifle, went to the Herndon’s cabin, tied their wrists behind their backs and bound their legs to steal their money. He bludgeoned them both.
