Paradis Denied Hearing

For the second time in a year, a Coeur d’Alene judge has refused to give convicted killer Donald Paradis a hearing to appeal his conviction.

First District Judge James Judd on Thursday denied the death row inmate’s request for post-conviction relief.

Paradis and his attorney had hoped such a hearing would give them a chance to prove the former motorcycle gang member is innocent and had received an unfair trial.

Paradis has had numerous appeals denied, including one that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It’s a case of somebody who was innocent,” said Paradis’ attorney, Edwin Matthews. “In the state’s zeal to enforce the death penalty, what we’re doing is erecting technicalities to keep the court from looking at evidence of innocence.”

Paradis, 45, of Spokane, was convicted of murdering 19-year-old Kimberly Ann Palmer. Her body was found in a Post Falls stream bed in June 1980 near the body of her boyfriend, Scott Currier.

Paradis was sentenced to death in Idaho, although he has maintained that Palmer was killed by other people at his home in Spokane.

He insists his only crime was bringing the two bodies to Post Falls and dumping them to avoid being blamed for the slayings.

Paradis earlier had asked Judd for post-conviction relief. If Judd had granted the relief, Paradis would have been entitled to a hearing to show that evidence at his trial was flawed.

But in August 1994, the judge refused to grant a hearing.

Paradis then filed a motion asking Judd to reconsider his decision. He also filed a notice of appeal asking the Idaho Supreme Court to decide if Judd was wrong to deny the hearing.

Matthews wants a hearing because he says he has the following new evidence:

Five eyewitnesses who, he says, confirm that Palmer was dead in Spokane hours before Paradis supposedly killed her in Idaho.

Three of those people say Paradis did not kill Palmer.

Paradis’ lawyer at the time also was a reserve police officer and so had a conflict of interest.

The medical examiner who testified at Paradis’ trial may have given false statements.

Matthews said the doctor testified that he didn’t find any material from the stream bed in Palmer’s lungs. But in a TV appearance last week, the doctor contradicted himself, saying he did find plankton in Palmer’s lungs, proving that she had died in Post Falls.

On Thursday, Judd again upheld his decision not to grant Paradis a post-conviction relief hearing.

Judd said Paradis had failed to show that William Brown’s alleged conflict of interest had affected his ability as an attorney.

The judge also pointed out that the doctor’s new statement about finding plankton in Palmer’s lungs only supports the evidence that Paradis had killed the girl in Post Falls.

Matthews said he and his client will wait to see whether the Idaho Supreme Court will uphold Judd’s actions or order a hearing.