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 9^th 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.