Lawyers for an 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.’s legal defense, his lawyers wrote in a previously unreported filing last week.

Discovery in the case is currently scheduled to end next month, but “obstructionism and mishandling of valid discovery requests” by the Idaho attorney general’s office mean that Pizzuto’s lawyers need more time, said the filing. Pizzuto’s attorneys accused Idaho officials of “unjustifiable” and “potentially sanctionable” conduct — and said they “obfuscated key information on lethal injections so as to mislead.”

According to Pizzuto’s filing, Idaho officials said they were seeking death penalty drugs, then asserted they couldn’t obtain the necessary chemicals, even though they had purchased lethal injection drugs earlier that year. The state’s misleading responses amounted to a “misdirection campaign,” the filing said. Idaho responded that the state has acted diligently in discovery.

“I think what we’re 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,” Robert Dunham, the director of the Death Penalty Policy Project, told The Intercept.

Pizzuto, who has terminal cancer, is suing the state on the grounds that his execution by lethal injection would violate the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. His attorneys have expressed concerns that, like other states, Idaho could be attempting to conduct executions with contaminated or unsafe drugs.

“Defendants have been stubbornly resistant to engaging with lawful discovery requests,” Pizzuto’s lawyers wrote, in a request to extended discovery.

The Idaho Department of Corrections declined to comment on pending litigation. The attorney general’s 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’s office filed a legal response objecting to extended discovery, arguing Pizzuto’s lawyers are seeking to drag out the legal process.

Prisoners’ lawyers regularly seek to obtain information about lethal injection chemicals and details about members of a state’s execution team to ensure that their clients’ Eighth Amendment rights won’t be violated.

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.

These efforts, however, have been heavily impeded, say lawyers in Pizzuto’s case. Prison officials and the attorney general’s office........

© The Intercept