Successive Capital PCP Dismissed

Today the Court affirmed the dismissal of a successive post-conviction petition in a capital case finding that it was barred under I.C. § 19-2719. Pizzuto v. State, http://www.isc.idaho.gov/opinions/State%20v.pdf.

Idaho Code § 19-2719 governs post-conviction petitions in capital cases to the extent they conflict with the UPCPA. Subsection (3) gives the defendant only 42 days after "the filing of the judgment imposing the punishment of death" to "file any legal or factual challenge to the sentence or conviction that is known or reasonably should be known." If the defendant fails to do so, the defendant "shall be deemed to have waived such claims for relief as were known, or reasonably should have been known." I.C. § 19-2719(5). In capital cases, therefore, "a successive petition is allowed only where the petitioner can demonstrate that the issues raised were not known or could not reasonably have been known within the forty-two day time frame." (The non-capital post-conviction statute, by contrast, requires a waiver be knowing, voluntary, and intelligent. I.C. § 19-4908.)

Here, the Court found that none of Pizzuto's claims fell within the exception to the 42 day rule. It also found that 19-2719 was constitutional.