Donald Paradis Puts Off Plea To Avoid The Death Penalty

The Commission on Pardons and Parole on Friday put off considering the commutation petition of condemned murderer Donald Manuel Paradis at the request of Paradis and one of his defense attorneys.

Defense attorney Bill Mauk of Boise said both Paradis and attorney Edwin Matthews of New York spoke with commission director Olivia Craven Friday morning.

The commission announced a day earlier saying it might consider the commutation petition that the Spokane man filed several years ago during its Friday session.

Mauk said Paradis will seek a clemency hearing but wants to make sure it is absolutely necessary since he is entitled to only one every 12 months.

Paradis ran out of state appeals last month when the Supreme Court unanimously rejected his bid for a new trial to consider new evidence he claims proves he did not kill 19-year-old Kimberly Ann Palmer in 1980.

He has also been through the federal appeals system once so that when 1st District Judge Gary Haman sets an execution date in the next several weeks, his consideration by federal judges will be expedited.

Because Mauk fears they will decline to consider the new evidence on procedural grounds, the clemency hearing before the parole board may be the last chance to avoid death for the 46-year-old former motorcycle gang member.

But even if the parole board viewed his case favorably, Gov. Phil Batt would have to formally approve a commutation before the death sentence would be voided.

“I’m certainly not going to try to prejudge any actions regarding Mr. Paradis,” Batt said Friday afternoon. “I’ve been given some information concerning his case but not definitive enough that I’d try to make any judgment at this point.”

Paradis was convicted with fellow Gypsy Joker motorcycle gang member Thomas Henry Gibson of strangling Palmer and then dumping her body wrapped in a sleeping bag in a stream near Post Falls. Since the verdict, however, Gibson has said Paradis was not present when he killed Palmer in Washington. Gibson is also appealing his death sentence.

State attorneys discount Gibson’s statements and other claims Paradis makes, noting that while Gibson admits to the killing, his conviction and sentence would also be in question since his story is that the murder occurred outside Idaho.