INNOCENCE: Debra Milke Exonerated from Arizona Death Row

UPDATE: On March 23, 2015, Judge Rosa Mroz offi­cial­ly dis­missed the charges against Milke. Milke has been added to DPIC’s exon­er­a­tion list. See Milke’s state­ment on her exon­er­a­tion. PREVIOUSLY: On March 17, the Arizona Supreme Court denied a request by pros­e­cu­tors that it review a low­er court’s order that dis­missed the charges against Debra Milke as a result of ​“egre­gious” police and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and bar­ring her retri­al. The court’s deci­sion effec­tive­ly ends pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al efforts to rein­state mur­der charges against Milke. 

Milke spent 23 years on death row for alleged­ly arrang­ing for two men to kill her 4‑year-old son so she could col­lect an insur­ance pay­out. The two men who were con­vict­ed of com­mit­ting the killing remain on death row. 

In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit over­turned Milke’s con­vic­tion because the pros­e­cu­tor had with­held evi­dence that under­mined key tes­ti­mo­ny in the case. Arizona’s pros­e­cu­tors have been accused of mis­con­duct in more than half of all cas­es in which the state has imposed death sentences. 

In this case, Detective Armando Saldate tes­ti­fied that Milke had con­fessed to him, but there was no record­ing, nor any wit­ness­es to the con­fes­sion, and Milke stead­fast­ly denied hav­ing con­fessed. Saldate’s per­son­nel record, which pros­e­cu­tors with­held from the defense, revealed that the detec­tive had com­mit­ted seri­ous mis­con­duct in pri­or cas­es, includ­ing lying under oath. 

In December 2014, the Arizona Court of Appeals barred pros­e­cu­tors from retry­ing Milke. The state sought to appeal that deci­sion to the Arizona Supreme Court, which the court reject­ed on Tuesday. The tri­al court is expect­ed to for­mal­ly dis­miss the charges next week, which would make Milke the 151^st per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row since 1973 and the first in 2015. She will be the ninth per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row in Arizona and the sec­ond female death row exoneree in the U.S.