In the Washington city of Seattle, Pizzuto had strangled 51-year-old Rita Drury to death in March 1985, and also fatally shot 31-year-old John Jones weeks later.

[5] On July 25, 1985, four months after he killed both Jones and Drury, Pizzuto committed the double murder of two gold prospectors in Idaho.

[6][7] Although his accomplices were arrested, Gerald Pizzuto managed to evade capture for the past four days by stealing a tourist's truck to drive out of Idaho and later forced another man to drive him to Montana, before a manhunt conducted by both police and FBI agents led to his arrest at his sister's house in Montana on July 29, 1985, four days after the Herndon murders.

[12] On May 23, 1986, Judge George C. Reinhardt sentenced 30-year-old Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr. to death for each count of first-degree murder.

[15] On September 30, 1987, King County Superior Court Judge James Sullivan convicted Pizzuto of second-degree murder with respect to the death of Jones.

[16] On October 20, 1987, in a separate court, a Superior County jury found Pizzuto guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Drury.

[23] On January 15, 1991, the Idaho Supreme Court rejected Pizzuto's appeal against his sentence and conviction for the Herndon murders.

[26][27][28] On August 3, 1995, the Idaho Supreme Court rejected Pizzuto's petition for new counsel to pursue his claims of ineffective legal representation in his original trial.

[32] In September 2007, Pizzuto appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court to overturn his death sentences, claiming that it would be unconstitutional to execute him given that he was mentally disabled as attributed to his low IQ of 72.

The last person executed in Idaho at that point was Richard Albert Leavitt, who was put to death on June 12, 2012, for mutilating and murdering a woman in 1984.

[40][41] On May 18, 2021, Idaho District Judge Jay Gaskill granted Pizzuto a stay of execution and approved his petition for a clemency hearing in November 2021.

In light of his terminal condition, Pizzuto's defense team argued for his death sentences to be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on humanitarian grounds.

They emphasized that Pizzuto's deteriorating health meant he was no longer a threat to society and would likely die in prison of natural causes.

[45][46] A seven-member parole board committee was appointed to hear the case, and before the panel, the prosecution argued for Pizzuto to be executed, stating that Pizzuto had committed multiple violent crimes like murder and rape and the aggravating factors were to the extent that the case "screams for justice" and warranted capital punishment.

Idaho Governor Brad Little, however, refused to commute Pizzuto's death sentence and hence rejected the clemency plea, ordering that the execution should move forward.

In explaining his reasons to refuse clemency, Little quoted, "The severity of Pizzuto's brutal, senseless, and indiscriminate killing spree strongly warrants against commutation.

[52] On August 23, 2022, the Idaho Supreme Court overturned the ruling of Judge Gaskill and reinstated Pizzuto's death sentences, finding that the Idaho governor had the authority to either accept or reject the parole board's recommendation of clemency, and this decision paved the way for the rescheduling of Pizzuto's execution.

[64] In November 2023, the state of Idaho managed to procure new drugs and foresaw the potential to resume lethal injection executions.