Paradis Granted Hearing Session May Be Last Chance At Avoiding Execution

The state Commission for Pardons and Parole on Monday granted condemned murderer Donald Manuel Paradis a commutation hearing in what could be his last chance to avoid execution.

The five-member board deliberated five hours on the 60-page petition from the 47-year-old former motorcycle gang member before agreeing to let him present his case that new evidence proves he did not kill 19-year-old Kimberly Ann Palmer of Spokane 16 years ago.

The hearing will be held May 15 at the Maximum Security Institution south of Boise. Commission Director Olivia Craven said some details must still be worked out but that the hearing will provide several hours for both Paradis and the attorney general’s office to present their cases.

“I’m extremely gratified that the board has granted us an opportunity to spend several hours presenting the evidence of Don Paradis’s innocence,” defense attorney Bill Mauk said.

Mauk talked with Paradis less than an hour after the commission decision and described him as very cheerful but unwilling to talk with anyone else.

Paradis also has a last appeal pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco after it was denied a week ago by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in Boise. But the bulk of the new evidence Paradis has been relying on in his commutation bid has already been before available to federal appellate courts.

That makes commutation the last real chance Paradis has to avoid becoming the 13th man executed by the state since statehood. Eighteen other men and one woman are also on Idaho’s Death Row.

And even if he can convince the commission, Gov. Phil Batt must formally approve clemency in 30 days or it is automatically denied.