The murder charge against an Arizona woman who sat on death row for more than 20 years for the 1989 murder of her four-year-old son has been dismissed after a federal appeals court threw out her conviction.
A judge formally exonerated Debra Milke, 51, after the state's highest court denied a final appeal by prosecutors for a retrial, ruling such a trial would constitute double jeopardy.
The judge's freeing of Milke ended a contentious case, which saw a federal court overturn her 1990 conviction in 2013, citing prosecutorial misconduct.
The court said the prosecution of Milke was based almost entirely on the testimony of a detective who had a long history of misconduct, including lying under oath, who claimed to have heard Milke make an admission of guilt.
In December 1989 Milke told her son Christopher he was going to get a chance to see Santa Claus at a local mall, and that Milke's roommate, James Styers, would take him there.
Instead, Styers and another man took the child to a remote area near Phoenix, where they shot him in the head and left his body in the desert.
Milke was found guilty in 1990 of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse and kidnapping, based largely on the alleged confession, which she has always denied making.
The confession, testified to by detective Armando Saldate, was never recorded or witnessed.
Prosecutors claimed Milke arranged the killing, not because she did not want the child but because she did not want him to live with his father.
Milke has always denied that; both men convicted of killing the child have refused to testify against Milke.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in overturning her conviction, cited numerous instances in which the now-retired detective Saldate either lied in testimony under oath or was found to have violated the rights of suspects during interrogations.
The court, in its 2013 ruling, was harshly critical of the handling of the case.
"No civilized system of justice should have to depend on such flimsy evidence," the court said.
Milke has been free on bond since that ruling.
She has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Phoenix, Maricopa County and a number of law enforcement officials involved in her case.
One of her attorneys called her ordeal "a long, long journey with so many ups and downs."
"She was innocent. It was all based upon a police officer that just totally lied," attorney Michael Kimerer said following the judge's ruling exonerating Milke. "To see her free today and totally free and exonerated, it's an unbelievable feeling — just unbelievable."
