Stay updated with breaking news from Idaho pardons. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Attorneys for a dying Idaho man facing execution in June want the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case, including a claim that a co-defendantâs lawyers brokered a secret deal with the judge in 1986. Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr., 65, was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder in 1986 in the killings of Berta Herndon and her nephew, Del Herndon, in Idaho County. The two were tied up and bludgeoned with a hammer in a cabin outside of McCall. Berta Herndon died from the hammer blows, and Del Herndon died after he was shot in the head. Pizzuto and two other men â James Rice and William Odom â were initially arrested and charged in connection with the deaths. Rice and Odom later pleaded guilty to lesser charges and testified against Pizzuto. ....
The Idaho Way is a weekly roundup of opinions, commentary and your views from around the region brought to you by the Opinion editor of the Idaho Statesman. ....
May 12, 2021 An Idaho death row inmate with terminal cancer and heart disease is asking the state to let him die naturally rather than kill him by lethal injection next month. 65-year-old Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr. is scheduled for execution June 2nd for the 1985 beating deaths of 58-year-old Berta Herndon and her 37-year-old nephew, Del Herndon, at a remote Idaho County cabin. His attorneys announced this week they filed a clemency petition on his behalf to the Idaho Pardons & Parole Commission. Pizzuto has terminal bladder cancer, diabetes and heart disease and is confined to a wheelchair. He’s been on hospice care since 2019, when doctors said he likely wouldn’t survive for another year. ....
Correction: Death Row-Clemency Petition story May 14, 2021 GMT BOISE, Idaho (AP) In a story May 11, 2021, about Idaho death row inmate Gerald Pizzuto seeking clemency, The Associated Press relying on incorrect court documents erroneously reported that Pizzuto shot murder victim Del Herndon. Pizzuto bludgeoned both victims, but Del Herndon was shot by co-defendant James Rice. ADVERTISEMENT ....