In Idaho, lawyers for Gerald Pizzuto, Jr., on death row since his 1986 conviction of the murders of Berta Herndon and her nephew Del Herndon in 1985, say the Idaho attorney general’s office has “been stubbornly resistant to engaging with lawful discovery requests,” the Intercept reported. Pizzuto’s lawyers told the Intercept the corrections officials may be attempting to execute Pizzuto with unsafe or contaminated drugs. Pizzuto is 68 years old, dependent on a wheelchair, diabetic, and on hospice care because of advanced bladder cancer. He suffers from the effects of repeated brain injuries and the horrific consequences of the sexual and physical abuse he suffered when he was a young child. But none of these factors has discouraged Idaho officials from repeatedly setting execution dates for Pizzuto, despite the state’s challenges in obtaining lethal injection drugs.
In Utah, Ralph Menzies, a 67-year-old man with vascular dementia, a progressive neurocognitive disorder that causes memory loss, and cognitive and physical impairment, was scheduled to be killed by firing squad by the State of Utah earlier this month, but was granted a stay one week before his execution by the Utah Supreme Court. In their August 29 ruling, the justices stated that “Menzies’s vascular dementia and its progressive effects call into question whether he remains competent to be executed. We acknowledge that this uncertainty has caused the family of Maurine Hunsaker immense suffering, and it is not our desire to prolong that suffering. But we are bound by the rule of law, and the law dictates that if Menzies makes a prima facie showing of a substantial change of circumstances that raises a significant question about his competency to be executed, a district court must reevaluate his competency, even though it may cause additional delay.”
Menzies was sentenced to death in 1988 for the kidnapping and murder of 26-year-old Maurine Hunsaker, a gas station attendant, in 1986, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. After 37 years on death row, according to the Tribune, Hunsaker “doesn’t speak — even at his commutation hearing, where his attorneys unsuccessfully pleaded for mercy from Utah’s parole board.”
In Arizona, 55-year-old Richard Djerf, convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for killing four family members in 1993, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on October 17. If it proceeds, it will be Arizona’s second execution this year, following Aaron Gunches’ execution in March. AZFamily reports that Djerf has expressed remorse for the multiple murders, but is not asking for clemency. Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has dismissed questions about the state’s lethal injection protocol, concerns that were raised by retired federal magistrate Judge David Duncan, who had been hired to review the protocol, and subsequently fired by Gov. Katie Hobbs. In an interview with ABC 15, Duncan said his concerns centered on the drug suppliers, the documentation process, and transparency.