PHOENIX, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A prosecutor in Arizona says he will appeal a court's decision to dismiss all charges against Debra Milke, sentenced to death for arranging the 1989 murder of her son.
A state appeals court ruled Thursday that the conduct of the prosecution in Milke's original trial was so outrageous that dismissing the case is the only remedy. Defense lawyers were not told at the time that a police officer who testified Milke confessed to him had a history of misconduct.
Christopher Milke, 4, was shot in December 1989. Prosecutors said that his mother, hoping to collect insurance money, arranged with her roommate, James Styers, and a friend, Roger Scott, to kill the boy.
The two men were also sentenced to death. Investigators said Christopher was told he was going on a trip to see Santa Claus at a mall but was instead taken to the desert and shot.
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Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said he will ask the state Supreme Court to reinstate the charges.
"This office today bears the burden for trying to get justice for Christopher Milke," he said.
Milke, who spent more than two decades on death row, has always denied killing her son and confessing to Phoenix Police Detective Armando Saldate. The confession was not recorded and no one else witnessed it.
The court was harsh in its description of the conduct of prosecutors in the case, calling it a "severe stain on the Arizona justice system."
"Our analysis is based entirely on whether double jeopardy applies to bar Milke's retrial in this case, and we express no opinion regarding her actual guilt or innocent," the opinion said.
The judges cited a number of cases where Saldate questioned suspects under dubious conditions, including one strapped to a gurney with a possible skull fracture and another who was in intensive care. They also cited incidents where Saldate allegedly gave false or misleading testimony to grand juries and a 1973 incident where he was disciplined for offering a female driver favorable treatment after a traffic stop in return for sexual favors.
A federal appeals court ruled last year that Milke must be either released or given a new trial. In January, Judge Rosa Mroz, a former deputy Maricopa County attorney, refused to dismiss the charges, saying she found no evidence prosecutors engaged in "active concealment" of exculpatory evidence.
Milke is currently free on bail.
