Idaho Warden Bought Execution Drugs on Roadside
On March 21, 2025, Idaho lost a bid to prevent disclosing its source of execution drugs to condemned prisoner Gerald Ross Pizzuto, Jr. By then, though, a warden deposed for the case had already admitted to buying lethal drugs for the state Department of Corrections (DOC) on the roadside near the Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI).
The recent decision came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, affirming a ruling by the federal court for the District of Idaho that a state law shielding the identity of the source of execution drugs did not extend to discovery in the prisoner’s suit challenging their suitability. See: Pizzuto v. Tewalt, 131 F.4th 1070 (9th Cir. 2025).
As PLN reported, Pizutto sued the state and DOC in 2020, claiming that killing him with a pentobarbital injection would likely subject him to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights. Fellow condemned prisoner Thomas A. Creech also filed suit, demanding to know the drug source, plus a second suit challenging his clemency hearings. [See: PLN, June 2024, p.36.] After executioners botched a February 2024 attempt, Creech won a stay in November 2024 while the district court considers the latter challenge. See: Creech v. Idaho Comm’n of Pardons & Parole, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31720 (D. Idaho).
Like other states, Idaho has hit roadblocks getting execution drugs from pharmaceutical companies, which are worried about lingering liability, as well as ethical concerns. New Jersey-based Hikema U.S. and Illinois-based Sagent both sent letters to DOC demanding assurances that their pentobarbital was not being used in state executions.
State lawmakers passed their law shielding the sources of execution drugs in 2022, which may have been why former IMSI Warden Tim Richardson testified that pentobarbital he bought from an intermediary in 2023 and 2024 probably came from an FDA-approved manufacturer and not a compounding pharmacy, where quality is less guaranteed.
The drugs used to kill state prisoner Richard Leavitt in 2012 came from a Washington compounding pharmacy whose operating pharmacist was fined and disciplined—after DOC Director Josh Tewalt flew to Tacoma with a briefcase of cash and bought the drugs in a Walmart parking lot, as PLN also reported. [See: PLN, Dec. 2022, p.50.]
In that tradition, Richardson made his drug buy in October 2023 from the back seat of a car pulled off the road outside the prison gates. Another pickup was arranged in February 2024 at a rural intersection near the lockup. Neither incident was publicly revealed until Richardson’s November 2024 deposition in Pizutto’s case. See: Pizzuto v. Tewalt, USDC (D. Idaho), Case No. 1:21-cv-00359.
Additional sources: CBS News, NBC News, Washington Post
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login