Paradis Running Out Of Time State Seeks Killer’s Execution After 14 Years On Death Row

After nearly 14 years on death row, condemned murderer Don Paradis could be executed within a matter of weeks, Idaho Solicitor General Lynn Thomas said Wednesday.

The Idaho Supreme Court unanimously rejected Paradis’ latest appeal Wednesday. By afternoon, Thomas said, the state had filed a request for 1st District Judge Gary Haman to issue a death warrant.

Attorney General Al Lance praised the court’s ruling.

“For 15 years, state and federal courts have heard the evidence in this case,” he said. “On every point, courts have ruled that Paradis’ arguments are not valid.

“Donald Paradis has spent thousands of taxpayer dollars arguing the unreliable and unbelievable,” Lance said.

Paradis, 46, was sentenced to death 14 years ago for the June 1980 strangulation of 19-year-old Kimberly Anne Palmer of Spokane.

Paradis hasn’t exhausted all of his appeals, but Thomas said pending appeals wouldn’t necessarily stop the execution. To do that, Paradis must win a stay of execution, which the state would fight.

“We’ve been through a lot of litigation in this case,” Thomas said. “This has been all the way through the federal and state (court) systems.”

Paradis’ attorneys didn’t immediately return phone calls. But Paradis’ Idaho attorney, Bill Mauk, told The Associated Press he could not understand why the court once again had refused to hear new evidence that Paradis didn’t kill Palmer.

“For years, Don Paradis has asked only for one thing, and that is for a hearing on the merits of the evidence that he believes entitles him to a new trial,” Mauk said. “And at every turn he’s been denied that hearing.”

“Don goes up and down, and I’m sure he is going to take this pretty hard,” Mauk said. “It narrows the road considerably for him.”

During the early morning of June 21, 1980, Palmer’s boyfriend, 26-year-old Scott Currier, was tortured and beaten to death at Paradis’ Spokane home by members of the Gypsy Jokers motorcycle gang.

The bikers, prosecutors said, took Currier’s corpse and Palmer - still alive - to a ravine off Mellick Road in Post Falls.

There, investigators concluded, Palmer tried to escape and was strangled. In separate Coeur d’Alene trials, Paradis and another gang member, Thomas Gibson, were convicted and sentenced to die.

Paradis has been confounded in many of his appeals by a 1984 state law that gives condemned criminals only 42 days after conviction to present any exonerating evidence the suspect knew about - or should have known about.

Paradis’ attorneys say that’s blatantly unfair; that the statute prevents Idaho judges from considering information that suggests Paradis was wrongly convicted.

The same concern has led a diverse group of prominent Idahoans to call for judges to consider Paradis’ claims. Former Idaho governor Cecil Andrus, conservative leader Dennis Mansfield and liberal Episcopalian Bishop John Thornton all have called for a new hearing.

“Obviously, one could keep these things going forever,” said Thomas. The statute, he said, was intended to prevent interminable appeals.

“What’s being denied,” Thomas said, “is the opportunity to plow the same ground.”

Idaho provides for two methods of execution: lethal injection or a firing squad. Thomas said the law was passed at a time when lethal injection was relatively new and unproven. If Paradis is executed, Thomas said, it would be by lethal injection.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition.

This sidebar appeared with the story: PARADIS PLEAS< Condemned murderer Don Paradis wants a court to consider several points: Fellow Gypsy Joker Thomas Gibson has repeatedly told a minister, a reporter, and attorneys that he, not Paradis, was the killer. He says Paradis wasn’t even around. Prosecutors respond by pointing out that Gibson confesses he killed Palmer in Spokane. If so, Idaho has no jurisdiction. Gibson gets off death row and takes his chances on a Washington trial. Paradis claims medical evidence also proves Palmer was killed in Spokane. Idaho Solicitor General Lynn Thomas responds that the medical evidence and way the bodies were found overwhelmingly supports the belief Palmer tried to run away from her captors at Post Falls, was caught and killed. Four witnesses also have said Palmer was killed in Spokane, not Idaho. Two of them - one passed a polygraph test - said Paradis wasn’t even home at the time of the killings. No witness ever has said Paradis killed Palmer. Thomas says the four, all linked to motorcycle gangs, are lying to protect Paradis. Paradis’ court-appointed attorney, William Brown, was fresh out of law school, had never tried a criminal case, and was working part-time for the Coeur d’Alene Police Department. Paradis’ attorneys call that a blatant conflict of interest. Prosecutors point out that the Idaho Supreme Court in 1986 reviewed the trial record and said Brown “did a commendable job.”