POSSIBLE INNOCENCE: Arizona Court Dismisses Charges Against Former Death Row Inmate

On December 11, an Arizona appeals court dismissed charges against Debra Jean Milke and barred retrial.

Milke spent 22 years on death row on chargers of arranging the 1989 murder of her 4-year-old son. She was the first woman sentenced to death in Arizona since 1932.

In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit overturned Milke’s conviction because the prosecution had withheld evidence about misconduct committed by their primary witness, Phoenix Detective Armando Saldate, who testified that Milke had confessed to the murder. Saldate had previously been implicated of lying under oath, among other misconduct. There was no recording of a confession, and Milke insisted she was innocent and had never confessed.

In its ruling on Thursday, the state court said it granted Milke’s request for dismissal, “because of the state’s severe, egregious prosecutorial misconduct in failing to disclose impeachment evidence.” Maricopa County prosecutors said they plan to appeal the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court. The two men who were convicted of carrying out the murder are still on death row.