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Lawyers for an<\/span> Idaho death row prisoner accused the state of failing to disclose important details about its execution drugs and blocking mandated depositions. Idaho prevented attorneys from obtaining information critical to death row prisoner Gerald Pizzuto Jr.\u2019s legal defense, his lawyers wrote in a previously unreported filing last week.<\/p>\n Discovery in the case is currently scheduled to end next month, but \u201cobstructionism and mishandling of valid discovery requests\u201d by the Idaho attorney general\u2019s office mean that Pizzuto\u2019s lawyers need more time, said the filing. Pizzuto\u2019s attorneys accused Idaho officials of \u201cunjustifiable\u201d and \u201cpotentially sanctionable\u201d conduct \u2014 and said they \u201cobfuscated key information on lethal injections so as to mislead.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing here is that there is a persistent pattern of obstruct and delay.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n According to Pizzuto\u2019s filing, Idaho officials said they were seeking death penalty drugs, then asserted they couldn\u2019t obtain the necessary chemicals, even though they had purchased lethal injection drugs earlier that year. The state\u2019s misleading responses amounted to a \u201cmisdirection campaign,\u201d the filing said. Idaho responded that the state has acted diligently in discovery.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what we\u2019re seeing here is that there is a persistent pattern of obstruct and delay with the hope that the judge will get impatient and make it go away,\u201d Robert Dunham, the director of the Death Penalty Policy Project, told The Intercept.<\/p>\n Pizzuto, who has terminal cancer, is suing the state on the grounds that his execution by lethal injection would violate the Constitution\u2019s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. His attorneys have expressed concerns that, like<\/a> other states<\/a>, Idaho could be attempting to conduct executions with contaminated or unsafe drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cDefendants have been stubbornly resistant to engaging with lawful discovery requests,\u201d Pizzuto\u2019s lawyers wrote, in a request to extended discovery.<\/p>\n The Idaho Department of Corrections declined to comment on pending litigation. The attorney general\u2019s office did not respond to questions sent by The Intercept. In court, Idaho has depicted its resistance to disclosing information as a necessary means of protecting its drug source. On Wednesday, the attorney general\u2019s office filed a legal response objecting to extended discovery, arguing Pizzuto\u2019s lawyers are seeking to drag out the legal process.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prisoners\u2019 lawyers regularly seek to obtain information about lethal injection chemicals and details about members of a state\u2019s execution team to ensure that their clients\u2019 Eighth Amendment rights won\u2019t be violated.<\/p>\n The inquiries can allow defense attorneys to find out whether drugs have been stored at properly or received quality testing and determine the training levels of execution medical team members.<\/p>\n These efforts, however, have been heavily impeded, say lawyers in Pizzuto\u2019s case. Prison officials and the attorney general\u2019s office vigorously resisted providing answers to routine questions. Leaders at the Idaho Department of Corrections fought basic inquiries about their lethal injection chemicals, such as questions about the drugs\u2019 countries of origin and testing for sterility.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey know that lethal injection relies on secrecy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n When forced to answer, state officials have sometimes offered false information. Previous filings noted that former Department of Corrections director Josh Tewalt misstated the expiration date of execution drugs, which Pizzuto\u2019s lawyers said prevented them further investigating the chemicals. The new filing from Pizzuto\u2019s team paints an even starker picture of how Idaho has obstructed discovery, accusing the state of a \u201clengthy and persistent history of mishandling proper discovery requests.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe see this type of deliberate concealing and misrepresentation again and again in Idaho and other executing states,\u201d Matt Wells, the deputy director of human rights nonprofit Reprieve US, told The Intercept. \u201cStates conceal this information from the public, from people on death row, from pharmaceutical companies themselves, because they know that lethal injection relies on secrecy. They know if its brokenness and truth emerges, the inhumanity of lethal injection is laid bare.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2012, Idaho carried out its most recent death sentence with the execution of Richard Leavitt. Prison officials obtained the drugs used in that lethal injection from an out-of-state pharmacy through a cash payment made in a Washington parking<\/a> lot.<\/p>\n As the state prepared<\/a> to execute Pizzuto in October 2022, his lawyers first requested that the government produce all documents \u201crelated to obtaining\u201d execution drugs. The next month<\/a>, the state issued a death warrant, but just two weeks later, officials announced that they could not obtain the chemicals necessary<\/a> to kill Pizzuto and would let the warrant expire.<\/p>\n Against this backdrop, state legislators took up a bill to authorize firing squad executions when lethal injection drugs were unavailable. In March 2023, during a hearing on the bill, Idaho Deputy Attorney General L. LaMont Anderson testified that the state had not been able to obtain pentobarbital for executions<\/a>. The firing squad bill passed<\/a> and was signed into law.<\/p>\n Unbeknownst\u00a0to Pizzuto\u2019s lawyers, Idaho moved to procure execution drugs just days after Anderson\u2019s testimony. The state generated a purchase order for the lethal injection chemicals and in April 2023 spent $50,000 on the drugs, according to last week\u2019s legal filing. That information would only become apparent earlier this year, after a protracted dispute in court over releasing the information.<\/p>\n For years, states around the country have struggled to obtain pentobarbital made by major pharmaceutical manufacturers, who have taken measures<\/a> to ensure their drugs don\u2019t get used for lethal injection. As discovery progressed in 2023, Pizzuto\u2019s attorneys worked under the impression that Idaho would be seeking execution drugs made by a compounding pharmacy: businesses that produce custom-made products by combining or otherwise manipulating raw pharmaceutical ingredients.<\/p>\n Idaho officials left open the possibility that it could obtain compounded drugs. In September 2023, Tewalt and a deputy attorney general wrote in a court filing that they were \u201cattempting to acquire any chemical that would be permissible,\u201d according to the state\u2019s execution protocol. The next month, the attorney general\u2019s office said in a filing that \u201cthe Idaho Department of Correction does not have the present ability to carry out an execution via lethal injection or firing squad.\u201d<\/p>\n Just two days later, the warden of the state\u2019s death penalty facility obtained 15 grams of pentobarbital in an exchange that took place outside the prison gates. Pizzuto\u2019s lawyers would later learn that the state had obtained pentobarbital manufactured by a pharmaceutical company, not a compounder.<\/p>\n \u201cIn short, the defendants effectively spent seven months obligating Mr. Pizzuto and the Court to expend time and resources delving into imaginary discovery disputes about compounded drugs,\u201d Pizzuto\u2019s lawyers wrote in last week\u2019s filing. \u201cDuring that time, the Idaho Attorney General\u2019s Office (AG)\u2014which represents the defendants here\u2014went out of its way to foster the impression that IDOC lacked a drug source.\u201d<\/p>\n On October 12 \u2014 the same day Idaho received the drugs it paid for \u2014 the state issued a warrant to execute Thomas Creech, who had been on death row since 1983<\/a>.<\/p>\n Still under the impression that the state could not have obtained manufactured pentobarbital, defense lawyers alleged that using compounded drugs would violate Creech\u2019s Eight Amendment rights. The court deemed these concerns irrelevant in light of having obtained the manufactured drug and denied Creech\u2019s request for a stay of execution. In February 2024, Creech\u2019s execution proceeded \u2014 but was called off after eight failed attempts to place an IV line to deliver lethal injection drugs.<\/p>\n Unlike Creech, the restraints on Pizzuto\u2019s discovery are not dictated by a looming execution. There is no active death warrant, and all the pentobarbital Idaho has obtained since 2023 is now expired. That allows his lawyers to pursue legal challenges to Idaho\u2019s obstruction over a more extended time period \u2014 if Pizzuto survives his illness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nTrouble Getting Drugs?<\/h2>\n