Idaho Seeks Retrial Extension

Idaho has asked for an extension of its May 2 deadline to either retry or free death-row inmate Thomas Henry Gibson, one of two bikers convicted in the 1980 slaying of a Spokane woman, Kimberly Ann Palmer, near Post Falls.

Idaho Deputy Attorney L. Lamont Anderson said Thursday the state has not decided whether or not to appeal a federal judge’s order that Gibson, 46, be retried or freed.

Anderson, chief of the litigation unit for Idaho Attorney General Al Lance, said the state needs more time to look into the possibilities of retrying Gibson before U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill’s May 2 deadline.

The state has until then to appeal Winmill’s March 2 order for a new trial. In overturning Gibson’s conviction, Winmill ruled that his court-appointed attorney, Mike Vrable, failed to adequately refute the state’s medical experts’ contention that Palmer was brought alive to Idaho, then strangled and dumped into a gully.

“We have filed for a motion for a stay. It asks the federal district court to grant a reprieve from its judgment,” Anderson said Thursday.

While no time limit is set upon the federal judge hearing the case to rule, Gibson and his attorney have only 14 days to respond to the state.

Gibson and 49-year-old Donald Manuel Paradis were convicted by Kootenai County juries in 1981 of strangling 19-year-old Palmer and throwing her body into a creek.

Gibson has confessed to killing Palmer, but at Paradis’ Spokane Valley home, not in Idaho. Paradis has maintained his innocence.