Inmate Awarded $900,000 For Wrongful Imprisonment

A former death row inmate who was wrongly convicted of murder and spent more than two decades in prison was awarded $900,000 in a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit.

Donald Paradis, 57, spent 20 years in prison, which included 14 years on death row for the 1980 murder of 19-year-old Kimberly Palmer, who was discovered strangled to death in a creek.

Fifteen years after Paradis’ conviction, his defense attorneys got a hold of exculpatory prosecution notes that indicated that a chief witness in the case had made contradictory statements that helped convict Paradis.

These notes were also in accordance with another man’s confession to killing Palmer. Thomas Gibson claimed he had murdered Palmer at Paradis’ home, but that Paradis wasn’t there at the time and didn’t know about the slaying. However, Gibson did say that Paradis helped him dispose of the body afterwards.

Paradis, in a plea bargain, admitted to being an accessory to the crime, a charge punishable by a five-year maximum sentence—a sentence Paradis completed four times over.

In 2001, Paradis was released and in 2003, he filed a $20 million federal civil rights lawsuit that claimed county prosecutors suspended evidence during his trial, which directly resulted in his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

Under the settlement terms, Paradis will receive $50,000 of the award immediately and guaranteed monthly payments of $3,541 for 11 years.

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