A Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix)
Superior Court Judge granted a $250,000 bail to Debra Milke, whose conviction
for murdering her then 5 year-old son 22 years ago was overturned by the Ninth
Circuit (and just upheld by the Supreme Court).
Milke is expected to make bail and live in a house purchased by her
supporters. The case is bizarre and one
of the most shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse in recent memory. Full story.
Twenty-two years ago, Milke, then an
insurance clerk, was arrested and convicted of participating in the killing of
her son, allegedly for a $5,000 insurance policy. Prosecutors claimed that she
dressed him up, told him he was going to see Santa, then handed him off to two
men, who then killed him.
The two men are on death row for the
murder. Their participation in the killing
is not in dispute. Milke’s has been in
dispute for two decades.
The only evidence that the prosecution
had against her was from a police detective who testified that Milke had
confessed to him in a closed interrogation room, with no recording device. Milke disputed this at trial, but the jury
believed the detective. The jury was not
told, nor was the defense at the time, about all the lies that the detective
was known to have told before.
Armando Saldate, Jr., the detective, had
a history of lying; all spelled out in the recent Ninth Circuit opinion:
This
history includes a five-day suspension for taking “liberties” with a female
motorist and then lying about it to his supervisors; four court cases where
judges tossed out confessions or indictments because Saldate lied under oath;
and four cases where judges suppressed confessions or vacated convictions
because Saldate had violated the Fifth Amendment or the Fourth Amendment in the
course of interrogations. And it is far from clear that this reflects a full
account of Saldate’s misconduct as a police officer. All of this information
should have been disclosed to Milke and the jury, but the state remained
unconstitutionally silent.
The opinion (highlights at Above the Law) took shots at every judge in Arizona
that had touched the case and upheld the conviction and the prosecutor’s
office. All of the shots were deserved.
The Maricopa County District Attorney’s
office is planning to retry Milke. This
looks like vindictiveness combined with attempted butt-covering. It should fail. The defense has a motion, set for hearing, to
exclude the original confession during retrial.
That is set for September 23.
Whether that is granted or not, the defense will be able to tell the new
jury about the sorry history of Armando Saldate, Jr., who should be in
jail. That should be enough.
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