BREAKING NEWS: Arizona
Supreme Court refuses to let Maricopa County retry Debra Milke for the
1989 murder of her son, and refuses to compel testimony from a
controversial detective. .........The
Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down appeals by the Maricopa
County Attorney's Office to reinstate murder charges against Debra Milke
and to compel a disgraced detective to testify in the case. The
Arizona Court of Appeals threw out the murder charge against Milke in
December. The Supreme Court during conferences Tuesday declined review
without comment. Milke, 51, spent 23 years on Arizona death row
for the December 1989 murder of her four-year-old son, Christopher. She
had allegedly arranged for two male friends to kill the boy so that she
could collect an insurance payout. They told him he was going to the
mall to see Santa Claus, but instead took him to the desert and shot him
in the head. Those two men, James Styers and Roger Scott, remain on death row. Milke's
conviction and death sentence were thrown out in March 2013 by the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellate court returned the case to
Maricopa County Superior Court because the original prosecutor failed to
disclose evidence that might have helped Milke's attorneys challenge
testimony from a Phoenix police detective. The detective, Armando
Saldate, claimed that Milke confessed to him, but there were no
witnesses to the confession, nor was it recorded. And the prosecution
did not turn over the detective's personnel record, which showed
misconduct in other cases.........Meanwhile, Milke's attorneys filed a
civil lawsuit in federal court Friday against the City of Phoenix, its
police department, including individual detectives, and Maricopa County
and the County Attorney's Office. The lawsuit alleges multiple civil
rights violations, including malicious prosecution.
See related Wrongful Convictions Blog post: "She remains free and it's done."
http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2015/03/17/debra-milke-case-she-remains-free-and-its-done/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Readers. Due to a 'writing' assignment, I will not be filing fresh posts for several weeks. (With the exception of breaking news;) When I am back in action I will make up for lost time with a vengeance. In the meantime, please keep me up to date with developments and don't hesitate to bring new matters of interest to this Blog to my attention at hlevy15@gmail.com.
Best wishes,
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
PS: For latest coverage of the Mark Lundy retrial go to: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/mark-lundy-murder-retrial
