Phoenix, AZ—Prosecutors went
to the Court of Last Resort to salvage their soiled reputations and that of a
disgraced former cop. Finally Debra Milke is free even though she already paid a price far greater than that of most convicted murderers in America.
It was not just Prosecutorial Misconduct that freed Milke but it was really about her innocence.
Had there been a retrial there was not a scintilla of a chance they'd have re-convicted Milke. This was just nothing more than an "Hail Mary" effort to limit corrupt official's liability under the doctrine of Collateral Estoppel. That's legalese that would decree in a civil lawsuit that since the judge let the trial commence, that the cops and prosecutors were acting in good faith.
This has been a 25 yearlong
odyssey that began December 3, 1989.
That day I met Milke as she was being booked into the Madison
Street Jail on a charge of murdering her four-year old son Christopher.
It was just two hours earlier
when Former Phoenix police detective Armando Saldate claimed Milke confessed this horrible crime to him. He was told
to record any interview with her but didn’t. He kicked out fellow officers and
medical personal from a nurse’s office at the Pinal County Sheriff’s Department
headquarters to preclude any witnesses.
Now at the jail using a hidden tape recorder
I asked Milke if she told the police she had anything to do with the death of
her son. She became angry and responded,
“That’s crazy, who told you that? I had
nothing to do with the death of my son!”
Since Milke had not been
allowed to make a single phone call or get advice from anyone in that short
time space it was obvious that there was never a confession.
At her trial Milke had a grossly
ineffective and pathetic lawyer. I was never called as a witness where I could have played my crucial audio
tape for the jury. If I could record Milke why could't Saldate?
The only evidence that
convicted Milke was Saldate’s perjury where he claimed that Milke Confessed. Milke was sentenced
to the Gas Chamber and spent decades in solitary confinement on Death Row at Arizon's Perryville Prison.
This changed after Milke
finally got better lawyers and after more than a decade their efforts culminated in this final ruling
that the case must be dismissed with prejudice.
That effectively and finally ended the 25 year nightmare of Debra Milke.
Aside of the relief for Debra
Milke other victims of prosecutorial and police misconduct will benefit from
the Milke ruling. The most immediate
beneficiary with be convicted killer Jodi Arias. That's because cops destroyed computer evidence that would have supported Arias’
claim she killed her former boyfriend in necessary self-defense.
Prosecutorial misconduct is
rampant in America. Prosecutors
routinely hide evidence from the defense lawyers that points to the innocence of
their clients.
Since the police
investigate the cases with people are killed or injured they control nearly all
the evidence that exists. It’s here were
is where the cheating begins.
Prosecutors and cops have
nearly blanket immunity for their misconduct and that’s why they rarely face
punishment even after they are caught red handed. That immunity is obviously the root of the
problem.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill
Montgomery went to the wall to protect the thugs in his office responsible for
the Milke travesty. Montgomery however could not succeed with the overwhelming evidence that exposed this epic misconduct.
Sadly the only people
punished here with be the taxpayers.
There with be no discipline or criminal charges for cops or prosecutors.
They won’t have to pay a single penny for their dastardly deeds. Taxpayer-funded
lawyers will defend these creeps in court.
Milke now has serious legal
help in the form of civil lawyers and they have filed a lawsuit on her behalf for the violation of her civil
rights.
That 72-page complaint is a
sordid saga of one outrageous act after another. It should make every American’s blood
boil. We’d expect this kind of activity
in Iran, North Korea or Hitler’s Germany but not here!
