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| Debra Milke is 49 years-old now. |
San Francisco, CA—In a stunning opinion the court reversed
the convictions and death sentence of Debra Milke.
As most of my readers know I’ve investigated the Debra Milke
case from her arrest on December 3, 1989 to the present. Over the decades I have done this as an
investigative freelance TV producer/reporter.
I have produced stories with Arizona’s TV stations, A&E American
Justice and over a half-dozen European media organizations. I have worked with
a Swiss Documentary producer making and showing a film for the Geneva Human
Rights Film Festival.
I have never once wavered in my belief that Milke never
confessed to police or that she was actually part of a conspiracy to murder her
four-year old son Christopher. I
interview her with a hidden tape recorder only hours after Phoenix Police
Detective Armando Saldate claimed Milke confessed to him.
Several days after my interview with Milke, a supplementary
report was filed by Saldate wherein he alleged she confessed to him. The timing just does not jive.
The issue before the court seemed to be whether Milke waived
her right to an attorney before confessing.
There was no waiver but more importantly there was no confession! Today in a stunning opinion the court made it
clear that they doubt Saldate’s confession and that the prosecutors hid
evidence about Saldate’s past perjury, false reports and other egregious
misconduct in violation of long established court rules.
The ordered a new trial but the so-called confession may still be an issue. The difficult part here is that confession
was and is the only evidence that ever existed linking Milke to her son’s
murder. If the confession is allowed all of Saldate's prior misconduct will also be handed to the jury. Prosecutor’s now have very little to present to a new jury. This looks
like Debra Milke may be going free.
The ball is now in the Arizona Attorney General’s court
because he must decide whether to appeal to the United States Supreme
Court. With the case record as we now
know it would seem unlikely they would actually hear the prosecutor’s
appeal.
For the first time I’m cautiously optimistic that Milke may
go free in the coming months perhaps short of another year. I’m hopeful she’s escaped the awful specter
of the lethal injection!
In all my years I don’t recall such a strong statement made
about the misconduct of cops, supervisors and prosecutors as the court made
today by this court.
I have a completed feature film screenplay about this
travesty and my years of observing this injustice. It looks like I will now
have to add a happy ending.
Happy? I don’t know
what could be happy about Debra Milke sitting in solitary confinement on Death
Row for nearly a quarter of a century.
The thousand of degrading and humiliating strip searches, bad meals and
unbearable Arizona summers without air conditioning have definitely made a
impact of this poor woman.
When she’s freed her job skills will be antiquated, her
contributions to retirement and Social Security non-existent and she
undoubtedly at age 49 has learned about menopause. I hope she can find happiness, laughs and a
rewarding way to spend her remaining years on this earth.
Here is the actual Court ruling and videos:
7 comments:
It sounds like you definitely called this one right. My hat is off to you Paul.
Thanks Paul for helping this lady.
I know about injustice alright
But not nearly as bad as what this lady has been through.
Well done all of you who helped.
You did good Paul.
What wonderful news which
brings joy to my heart!
As soon as I saw this on CNN, I thought of you. I know how long you have championed her innocence all these years so congratulations. Best wishes Vicki aka ChrissyB from DaRefugees.
One would think that with the prosecutorial misconduct and perjury that she would be entitled to a tidy sum for her decades of suffering..
They should not have vacated her cell. They should have switched her for Saldate, and let him serve out the remainder of the sentence.
saldate comitted attempted murder, kidnapping, slander, and a long long list. May he rot in hell for his evil ways. He does all police a diservice by his criminal actions.
Judge Kosinski seemed to concur with himself at the end of his decision.
I thought this was important from his decision and how he came to it.
In the words of 9th Circuit Chief Judge Kosinski from the decision.
"It’s not just fairness to the defendant that calls for an objectively verifiable process for securing confessions and other evidence in criminal cases.
WE ALL HAVE A STAKE in ensuring that our criminal justice system reliably separates the guilty from the innocent.
Letting police get away with manufacturing confessions or planting evidence not only risks convicting the innocent (OR RESULTING IN POLICE BRUTALITY AND WASTING INNOCENT PEOPLES LIVES)
but HELPS THE GUILTY AVOID DETECTION AND STRIKE AGAIN.
Could the people of Arizona feel confident in taking Milke’s life when the only thread on which her conviction hangs is the word of a policeman with a record of dishonesty and disrespect for the law?
Bad cops, and those who tolerate them, put all of us in an untenable position.
Milke may well be guilty, even if Saldate made up her confession out of whole cloth. After all, it’s hard to understand what reason Styers and Scott would have had for killing a four-year-old boy.
Then again, what reason would they have to protect her if they know she’s guilty?
But I seriously doubt the jury would have convicted Milke without the purported confession.
Indeed, without the confession,there’s not enough evidence to support a conviction. Which is why it’s very important that the confession be reliable and lawfully obtained "
As you know i don't always agree with Judges but I agree with this Judge's decision.
Seems like the 9th Circuit decision doesn't want her illegally obtained confession which they say was probably not a confession to be used at any further lower court trials.
"I would reverse the district court’s finding that Milke
knowingly waived her rights under Miranda and Edwards v.
Arizona, 451 U.S. 477 (1981). The “confession,” if it was
obtained at all, was extracted illegally. There can be no
serious claim that admission of the confession was harmless.
I would therefore set aside Milke’s conviction on the separate
ground that it relied on an illegally-obtained confession that
probably never occurred, and bar use of the so-called
confession during any retrial of Milke."
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