Federal Defender of Idaho files clemency petition for death row inmate Gerald Pizzuto
Gerald Pizzuto, 64. (IDOC + Staff Photo)
BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — The Capital Habeas Unit at the Federal Defender Office of Idaho announced in a press release on Tuesday it has filed a clemency petition on behalf of Gerald Pizzuto.
The State recently signed a death warrant for Pizzuto, one of eight people on Idaho's death row.
He was sent there in 1986 after being convicted of killing 58-year-old Berta Herndon and her nephew Del Herndon, 37, at a remote Idaho County cabin where they were prospecting.
"We are asking the Idaho Pardons & Parole Commissioners to give close review to Mr. Pizzuto’s petition, and to grant a hearing as soon as possible to give him a chance to present all the evidence that shows why it makes more sense to commute his sentence and allow him to leave this world naturally," the release explains.
Commissioners will meet in an executive session on May 18 to review the petition. Pizzuto is scheduled to be executed on June 2.
"He is not expected to live much longer and could die any day now," the release explains. "He has been in hospice care for more than a year battling a broad range of diseases, including late-stage bladder cancer and chronic heart disease that has caused repeated heart attacks and coronary blockages."
The state of Idaho hasn't executed an inmate since 2012.
The release continues:
"Granting clemency to Mr. Pizzuto, age 65, would be a show of mercy for a dying old man."
"Mercy for a boy whose life was stolen from him by a sadistic stepfather who bound, raped and sodomized him, and beat him until he was black and blue if he dared cry from the pain. Mercy for a prisoner who has spent the past 35 years, more than half his life, isolated in a tiny cell on death row."
"Mr. Pizzuto was born into a terrifying world of child abuse not of his making. He is now a prisoner of his own broken-down, disease-riddled body. He poses no threat to anyone. Executing him would be a needless race against his imminent death from terminal illness, as well as a waste of time, resources, and taxpayer money."
