Debra Milke

1. Arizona State Prison Complex – Perryville
   Dates unknown

Debra Jean Milke (née Sadeik; born March 10, 1964) is a German-American woman who spent over 25 years in prison in the state of Arizona. She was one of three people sentenced to death for the December 2, 1989, shooting death of her four-year-old son, Christopher Conan Milke. Her alleged conspirators were her boyfriend James Lynn Styers and his friend Roger Mark Scott. Neither testified against her and both agreed that she was not present at the shooting. Scott implicated Milke as the mastermind while Styers said she had no involvement whatsoever. They implicated each other as the actual shooter. Who that was remains a subject of speculation. With the passage of time Milke's conviction became increasingly polarizing, largely due to the conduct and testimony of Phoenix police detective Armando Saldate Jr. Saldate testified that Milke confessed to him. The alleged confession was uncorroborated, however, and Milke is adamant it did not occur. Saldate was later accused of perjury. Questions about whether a confession was made and whether Milke had voluntarily waived her Miranda rights, Saldate's long history of misconduct, and prosecuting attorney Noel Levy withholding Saldate's personnel record from the defense, became central issues of Milke's appeals. In March 2013, a three-judge panel of the United States Ninth Circuit Court unanimously overturned Debra Milke's conviction. In their ruling, the judges excoriated the conviction. Milke was released on $250,000 bond that September by Judge Rosa P. Mroz of the Maricopa County Superior Court. County prosecutor Bill Montgomery unsuccessfully appealed the decision to the state supreme court, which blocked a proposed retrial. On March 23, 2015, all charges against Debra Milke were formally dismissed with prejudice by Judge Mroz. In 2020, Milke lost a civil suit claiming wrongful conviction. A federal judge found that Milke had tampered with evidence in the case at least 16 times. In 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the verdict against Milke. The ruling stated that Milke had knowingly and willingly destroyed thousands of documents about the case, including a journal written shortly after her conviction, documents she collected in prison, and boxes of documents by her mother concerning her criminal and habeas cases. She and her lawyers had also taken down a website and social media pages about her case. The ruling effectively ensures that Milke will never receive any compensation for her imprisonment.

External references

• Wikipedia
• Wikidata (Q5248498)