Death Penalty

The Idaho Department of Correction notified the court on Wednesday that it does not have the chemicals necessary to carry out the execution on Dec. 15 and that it will allow the death warrant to expire.

Lawyers defending Gerald Pizzuto Jr. asked a judge to delay the date until his legal challenges are complete.

The court ruled in August that the governor has the authority to reject commutation decisions by the Commission on Pardons and Parole.

In a rare decision last year, the Commission on Pardons and Parole supported a clemency request for Gerald Pizzuto Jr., who was on death row after being convicted of the 1985 murders of Berta and Del Herndon in an Idaho County cabin.

Elise Quagliata has had the rare experience of truly getting to know the character she portrays in "Dead Man Walking" – Sister Helen Prejean. The nun famous for her activism for the abolition of the death penalty was portrayed, in an Oscar-winning performance, by Susan Sarandon in the film adaptation of Prejean’s memoir. And now, audiences are experiencing Prejean’s story anew with "Dead Man Walking," the opera.

A bipartisan group of Idaho House lawmakers signed off on a bill Thursday to hide the identities of lethal injection drug suppliers.

State officials could hide where they get lethal injection drugs from under a new bill introduced Monday.

Idaho inmate Gerald Pizzuto’s death sentence was reduced to life in prison by a state district court judge Friday.

The state’s parole board backed reducing a convicted killer’s death sentence to life in prison, but Gov. Brad Little immediately rejected their recommendation.

A parole board Tuesday granted death row inmate Gerald Ross Pizzuto a clemency hearing in November, rescinding the warrant to execute Pizzuto June 2.