U.S. court overturns convictions of woman on Arizona death row

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. court overturns convictions of woman on Arizona death row

By Tim Gaynor
PHOENIX | Thu Mar 14, 2013 5:36pm EDT

(Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court on Thursday tossed out the conviction of a woman who has spent more than 22 years on Arizona's death row after being found guilty of conspiring to murder her 4-year-old son in 1989.

Debra Milke, 48, was placed on death row after she was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy and other charges in the death of her son Christopher in December 1989, in a case that drew wide media coverage at the time.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned her conviction on Thursday, ruling the prosecution failed to disclose the history of misconduct, including lying under oath, of the detective who allegedly obtained Milke's confession to the crime.

During Milke's trial, the court heard she sent her son Christopher to a Phoenix shopping mall in the days before Christmas in 1989 with her roommate, James Styers, according to court documents.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/us-crime-arizona-conviction-idUSBRE92D19V20130314

[Suich]

1. I just watched a show on tv about her trial and conviction.

Her sister, who she had never gotten along with, testified against her. The jury didn't think she showed enough emotion on the witness stand (she was on meds).

Glad her conviction was overturned. I didn't understand how they convicted her in the first place.

[indepat]

2. Would an apt penalty for this gross prosecutorial misconduct include slightly crushed

testicles, or some lady-parts, as applicable? Or would that be too harsh?

[DreamGypsy]

3. To be released from prison, after 22 years, nearing age 50...

Last edited Thu Mar 14, 2013, 09:24 PM - Edit history (1)

The "facts":

On December 2, 1989, James Lynn Styers filed a missing child report, advising police that his roommate's son, Christopher Milke (age 4), had disappeared during their visit to Metrocenter mall. Roger Mark Scott was present with Styers.

On December 3, 1989, Scott admitted during a police interview that he had accompanied Styers the previous day to a desert wash in the area of 99th Avenue and Jomax Road where Styers shot and killed Christopher Milke. Styers agreed to provide Scott with $250 to file a social security claim. Styers believed he would receive some of Christopher's $5,000 life insurance policy. At the conclusion of the interview, Mr. Scott led police to the desert area where they found Christopher Milke's body.

During a police interview, Debra Jean Milke, Christopher Milke's mother, conceded that she had conspired with Styers to have her son killed. She indicated that it would be better to have her son die than grow up like her husband.

Here's the analysis from Arizona death penalty injustice:

Debra Milke’s arrest came on the 3rd of December, 1989 just hours after Eldon’s and she faced not only Noel Levy as prosecutor, but the same team of investigators with Phoenix Detective Armando Saldate acting as senior detective. The similarities do not stop there, however, and her case as Eldon’s leaves one to wonder how an allegedly ethical and skilled prosecutor could depend solely upon the shallow accusations of others, with the questionable testimony used in Debra’s trial certainly leaving doubt as to her guilt.

Not surprisingly, Saldate was the main witness in Debra's case and at trial related the details of a confession that Debra allegedly made to him. In fact, according to Saldate, Debra admitted to having the two co-defendants murder her four year old son to gain five thousand dollars in life insurance. However, there was not a shred of evidence that is above reproof including the confession that came from a completely paraphrased report with the interrogation not recorded, witnessed or signed, despite Saldate’s superiors instructing him to record her interrogation.

What fragments of a life will she be able to recover, at 49 years old, after almost half her life was spent in the Pen under a death sentence?

[kestrel91316]

4. She's not 70 - she's 48.

[DreamGypsy]

5. Yeah, in the shower after 'Posting My Reply' I wondered ...

...if I got that wrong.

The phrase from the article "Debra Milke, 48, was placed on death row after she was convicted of first-degree murder" is a bit ambiguous, is it ..."Debra Milke, now 48, was placed on death row ..." or "Debra Milke, at 48, was placed on death row ...".

The former is correct. Thx.

[Macoy51]

6. The State Can Still Retry Her

The court is not saying she did not commit the crime. She won on appeal because the prosecutor failed to tell her lawyer about the Detective’s record of misconduct, not because she didn’t conspire to kill her 4 year old child. The State is free to retry the case, this time they have to tell the jury about the Detective's history of misconduct.



Macoy