Dangerous Criminals May Deserve Execution but Government’s Incompetence is Epic.

Phoenix, AZ—Joseph Wood was condemned to die after being convicted of two rather nasty murders.  I won’t comment on his innocence because I don’t know.   It seems on its face Wood’s two murder convictions was not the subject of controversy.

We will never know what demons drove Wood’s violence or if there were any very real excusable brain malfunctions behind his mad acts.  We can only guess.

I won’t argue that some hopelessly evil people on our earth don’t deserve to live.  I absolutely encourage people to use guns and other deadly weapons in self-defense and the defense of others.  The concept of killing these people decades later is an entirely different matter. 

Arizona used secret drugs obtained from a clandestine source to kill Wood.  Wood’s lawyers demanded to know about the drugs and their effectiveness, but were rebuffed throughout the entire appeal process.  This was happening in a nation where its government brags about its transparency.

Wood choked and gasped for air during the nearly two hour deadly ordeal.  Finally he died.  The legislature sought lethal injection to make murder by government quick and clean.  Just as Wood’s lawyers feared Arizona’s experimental drug cocktail failed and the execution was botched. 

Just like Wood’s murder victims, he too had family members and friends.   The kin on both sides of these things always suffer too.  Murder and punishment is an ugly business. 

It would be a lot less disturbing if witnesses and cops never lied, evidence and it’s meaning was an exact science but that’s just not the case.

Jurors are a lot of things but perfect is not one of them.  We can never guess what a jury will do and that alone is a monument to their guesswork. 

Twice prosecutor of the Year, Kenneth Peasley from Pima County, AZ was the champ of all Arizona prosecutors putting more people on Death Row that any other.  He was a Death Penalty Hero for sure. 

Peasley was a brilliant lawyer and ruthless prosecutor.  He was the master of giving immunity to confessed killers if they’d testify implicating others.  Peasley would put a suit on Satan and bring him into court as he vouched to a jury for his witnesses from Hell.

Thankfully that ended when Peasley got caught knowingly putting a perjuring police witness before a jury in a death penalty case.  Peasley was subjected to a pretend Grand Jury investigation by his peers and exonerated.  The State Bar of Arizona yanked his law license.

Peasley since contracted and died of cancer.    

With hundreds of Death Row inmates being exonerated sometimes after decades of solitary confinement something’s obviously wrong.

If we end the Death Penalty we will save hundreds of millions on appeals.  We too often forget that we must bay for both the defense and prosecution of Death Penalty cases.  It’s significantly cheaper if we simply warehouse the convicted killers until they die or are too old and feeble to cause any harm.

I’m going to end with a simple premise; the Death Penalty is always and properly the tool of a Police State.  It’s better suited for Nazis, Communists and Fascists. It does not belong in a civilized society.

Who in their right mind would give a politician or bureaucrat the right to kill them?  That’s exactly what we’ve done!  Considering the crackpots we elect was that a good idea.

Jodi Arias and her punishment

Phoenix, AZ—The Circus has folded up its tents and vacated the surroundings of the Maricopa County Superior Court Building complex that hosted, “The Greatest Show on Earth.” If that sounds inappropriate that’s because it was just that.   That Jodi Arias trial was something of a perverted Roman Holliday.

Jodi Arias was involved in a somewhat routine domestic disaster that left her young boyfriend Travis Alexander dead.  We now know that Arias killed him but the exact circumstances are shrouded in lies and mystery.  Lies from the mouths of frightened suspects usually flow like water at Niagara Falls.  Was the killing justified?  We can only guess.  Domestic homicide often unleashes massive rage because of so many factors unique to our most intimate relationships.

Women defending themselves from attack by men have little choice but to use deadly weapons because there is usually a serious disparity of force between men and women.  Alexander’s injuries don’t shock me, I’ve seen worse in proven justifiable cases.

It really makes no difference in our criminal justice system whether the accused is actually guilty or innocent.  The jury simply weighs the material it was given to arrive at a verdict.  If the jury get’s it wrong that’s just too bad. Their verdict and they way they arrive at it cannot be second-guessed by an appeals court.  Only judicial errors get review by the higher courts.  

If jury misconduct is discovered that’s a different matter.   That generally will lead to new trials.  Jury misconduct is very difficult to investigate or prove.  Judges always go out of their way preventing defense attorneys from making effective inquiries of jury members.  

The jury in the Arias case voted unanimously for a 1^st Degree Murder conviction making Arias a serious contender for Death Row.  When it came to sentencing at least four of them did not have the stomach to kill Arias.  She faces a new panel and sentencing hearing.  Questions remain about double jeopardy and finding an unbiased new jury panel.  The only thing that’s certain is the massive cost to arrive an acceptable punishment.

This should never been prosecuted as a death penalty case.  Alexander’s family members are Mormon and that religion believes that blood must always be shed to avenge a killing.  Mormons have a lot of influence especially in Republican Primary Elections in the greater Phoenix area.   The County Attorney, Bill Montgomery is under a great deal of political pressure to make sure Arias is put to death. It appears that may not be possible now.

The best thing for justice and taxpayers may be an agreement for something like 25 years to life behind bars.  Realistically that’s a much higher price than would be exacted in most other states.  Arias will be retirement age upon the earliest possible release date.  The woman could do a lot of good or not during that massive amount of time. She’d at least have a chance to redeem herself.

Have we become so blood thirsty that we want to see this woman strapped down and killed?  Frankly that is beneath the dignity of any civilized nation. 

Let’s save a bundle of tax dollars and settle for an agreement that would end appeals by Arias. Let’s hope that she can someday redeem herself.  Nothing will bring back Travis Alexander or fill the hole left in his family.  Frankly the Alexander family won’t find peace until they can forgive.  Arias must earn that forgiveness by becoming a good example to the other inmates of Arizona’s prison system.   The taxpayers need a break too.  Lets hire more cops or schoolteachers with the money we will certainly waste on killing Arias.  

Death Row and Prison Media Interview Ban is Horrible Government Policy

Florence, AZ—Currently there are 121 men and three women on Death Row in Arizona.  The killing here substantially exceeds larger states like Texas for per capita executions.  There has been a number of exonerations here and certainly more are expected.

The State of Arizona like several others has cut off TV news from access to any inmate for any reason.  Inmates can write letters but letters don’t make watchable TV and prison officials know this.  A huge percentage of inmates are illiterate and can't even write a simple letter.

Prison officials try and justify this by suggesting that crime victims become traumatized whenever inmates appear on TV.   That’s hogwash unless of course some "victim" falsely accused and obtained a conviction against an innocent person.  Yes, that does happen far more often than we will admit.

The media does not like wasting time listening to inmates whine about their troubles.  They only will commute to the remote locations where the prisons are for compelling reasons. These kinds of interviews happen rarely even in the jurisdictions that allow them.

Most lawyers hate for their clients to talk to the media because they tend to incriminate themselves even further during the appellate process. 

Often an inmate can raise issues of corruption or doubt that have real merit.  Is there somehow harm when an inmate wants to make it public that prosecutors and courts are refusing to administer DNA tests that would exonerate him?

The inmate media embargo is really about saving law enforcement agencies and prosecutors from embarrassment in wrongful conviction cases.  The claim of saving victims from emotional harm rings deceptive, hollow and disingenuous.

Texas allows TV news crews full access to their condemned inmates right up to death’s door.  Often it is an inmate wanting to express remorse.   Sometimes it’s simply a self-serving gesture to gain sympathy.  Other times it’s a frantic effort to get their cases reinvestigated with today’s better tools before the death clock runs out.

When government hides their inmates from the media it flies in the face of open government.  Transparency is reduced to zero by solid steel doors and high prison walls. 

Our prisons are being reduced to secret Gulags where anonymous inmates are housed in seclusion.  When inmates are so isolated that nobody can observe, horrible things begin to happen. 

It’s time for Arizona and California to return to the policies of the past where the media has reasonable access.  Our penal systems seem to be headed for the policies of Devil’s Island or North Korea.  This departure from civilization is dead wrong. 

Who is Arizona Milke, a Victim or Just Another Dysfunctional Drug Addicted Ex-Convict?

Phoenix, AZ—Mark Henry Milke has legally changed his name to Arizona Milke.  It’s understandable, he’s got a very troubled past.  He is an ex-convict and drug addict that happens to be the father of four-year old Christopher Milke.  James Styers and Roger Scott murdered Young Christopher Milke in December of 1989.

If Debra Milke is guilty of any wrongdoing it was by being smitten as a young adult by this smooth older con man.  Mark Milke had that bad boy image and young Debra was delusional that she could meet the challenge to somehow change and tame him. 

Mark Milke was a sometime carpet installer when he was not in jail, prison or simply idle because of alcoholism, mental illness or his drug addiction.  Milke has a long documented history of domestic violence with numerous women.  The Orders of Protection, mental commitments and criminal cases were once all available at the Maricopa County Court Clerks records.  Later the law was changed and his mental commitments were removed from public viewing.  I still have two old case numbers.

Early in their failed marriage Debra, soon learned that Mark was dangerous and a horrible excuse for a father.  He did not support his child and refused to stop his law breaking and substance abuse.  Mark threatened Debra and Christopher and that sent Debra Milke running to the courts for protection during their divorce.

Debra Milke had to seek safety from Mark and her sister knew a sometime church going James Styers who was a single father of a girl  Christopher’s age.  Styers was a Marine veteran living on a disability pension.  More importantly Styers had a two-bedroom apartment and offered to rent one to Debra and her son. 

Styers quickly tried to romance Debra but she understandably rebuffed the older man.  Soon Debra got a better paying job across town and rented her own two bedroom apartment in Tempe close to her job.  It was after Debra’s announcement to James that he and Roger Scott decided to kill Christopher.  Was this because Styers believed Debra would not move away while her son was missing?  Did Styers somehow think he‘d finally be in line for Debra’s affections under those circumstances?

Mark Milke took no part in Christopher’s murder but I think it’s clear that his mental illness, drug addiction and threatening violence placed little Christopher right into harm's way.  I’m convinced that had Mark Milke been any kind of a father Christopher would be alive today.  Mark Milke is not without serious guilt here.

When Christopher was murdered Mark Milke quickly became a self-promoter.  He immediately used his new status and fame to garner sympathy, sex and financial support from gullible women.  Some of the women later got Orders of Protection and later had to flee from Mark Milke too.

Mark Milke’s new pick-up line was, “My ex-wife murdered my son to get back at me!”  He’d carry around a little Teddy bear and his son’s ashes in a belt fanny pack.    Soon Mark Milke misplaced Christopher’s ashes and to this day does not know where they may be. 

Mark Milke bragged to me after the trial and sentencing of his ex-wife how he hid the family photo album from her lawyer and trial court.  He actually loaned it to me to photograph for a future Channel 10 television story.  In it there were hundreds of great color photographs of a very happy Debra and Christopher Milke.  A clean apartment, great kids clothes, toys and there was a wonderful story of motherly love revealed by those pictures.

Mark Milke has capitalized on his son’s murder in every way he could.  His conduct was beyond disgraceful and despicable.  Arizona Mark Milke has never missed an opportunity to smear his long-suffering ex-wife with the media.  Due perhaps to financial reasons the media no longer vets their sources.   So this troubled ex-con-husband is allowed to smear Debra Milke relentlessly and unchallenged.

In all of Mr. Milke’s efforts to smear his former wife claiming he “knows she is guilty” he never once mentions that he was unable to give police or prosecutors one scintilla of evidence of her involvement in the crime.  Arizona Milke never testified in any proceeding whatsoever in this case.  That alone should scuttle any credibility of his outrageous and self-serving claims.   

As for Debra Milke She has won a new trial for now and will have to continue the fight for her freedom.  However now the prosecution has been exposed for their outrageous obstruction of justice, promotion of detective Armando Saldate's perjury and the truth seems to be traveling in the direction of setting Debra Milke free.   

They Executed a Prisoner In Arizona Today

Florence, AZ—The small red brick Death House at the prison was the scene of a lethal injection execution today.

Robert Moormann, 63 was as defective and frightening as any killer went to his death asking for forgiveness. Moormann a Catholic made peace with God taking communion before he was killed.

The executioner used a single drug because the other two were unavailable. That will not be sitting well with the courts that warned they might intervene in this flawed process.

In 1972 Moormann, was convicted and given a sentence of nine years to life for kidnapping and sexually assaulting an eight year-old girl.

He was paroled and soon had his parole revoked. Incredibly officials allowed him to leave the prison in 1984 for 72 hours on a "compassionate furlough."

Mooremann spent that time at a motel across the street from the prison with his 74-year-old mother who was also his life-long sex partner. He apparently had an argument with his mother that ended when he beat, suffocated and dismembered her depositing her body parts in various places around the town.

Yes Moorman was a dangerous and twisted soul and deserved maximum punishment. He also reportedly had the mind of a child. Killing this pathetic creature nearly three decades later is beyond pointless.

He did apologize to the child he raped 40 years earlier and her family with his last words.

It would have saved the state a few million dollars in legal fees to simply kept him behind bars for whatever years he had left.