Death Penalty News

Sammantha Allen In the end, the jurors felt they had no choice but to sentence Sammantha Allen to death for the brutal 2011 murder of her 10-year-old cousin, Ame Deal. The Phoenix woman had been on trial in Maricopa County Superior Court since May, one of four family members charged with disciplining the girl by forcing her to do exercise in sweltering July heat and then locking her in a 31-inch-long footlocker overnight. "The pictures of the victim stayed in our minds," said juror Ann Ospeth. "I think the thing for us was the victim and all the things her life entailed." It demanded a death penalty, the jurors agreed. "We were following what the law stated," said juror Amanda Heath. And indeed the jurors felt that Allen should be punished to the max. They also found aggravating factors for the four underlying child-abuse counts against Allen, which allowed the judge to impose harsher sentences for those charges. Superior C...

Former detective Armando Saldate PHOENIX - A retired Phoenix police detective whose credibility was attacked in a now-dismissed murder case that sent an Arizona woman to death row for 22 years has lost his bid to refuse to answer certain questions in her wrongful-conviction lawsuit. The detective, Armando Saldate, had agreed to answer questions about the investigation that led to Debra Milke's conviction in the 1989 killing of her 4-year-old son, Christopher. But Saldate did not want to give up his right to decline questions about misconduct allegations against him. His request to decline questions about matters not directly tied to the criminal case was denied Thursday. U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver said the request may be premature and would have to offer more facts in the future to support any refusal to answer questions. Lawyers for Saldate had said he would refuse all questions in Milke's lawsuit, including those about her criminal case, if his request ...

Debra Milke In September 2013, 2 1/2 weeks after being released from custody, Debra Milke had a hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court. She had spent 24 years behind bars and her eyes were wild, like those of an animal, as she backed into the corner of a crowded elevator, hugging the walls and shaking. "I was trying to get used to people," she told The Arizona Republic in an exclusive interview last week. "I was trying not to hyperventilate." Milke was a celebrated murderer, convicted of arranging the 1989 murder of her 4-year-old son, Christopher. Christopher was told he was going to the mall to see Santa Claus. Instead, he was taken into the desert by Milke's male roommate and one of his friends, and shot in the head. Milke denied that she had any part in the murder, but a jury thought otherwise. She was sent to death row in 1991 and languished there until March 2013, when a federal appeals court threw out her conviction and her dea...

The National Latino Evangelical Coalition They are the 1st national association of evangelical congregations to take a position in favour of death penalty repeal. Many Catholic groups support them. In a unanimous vote on Friday March 27, the National Latino Evangelical Coalition (NaLEC) urged its 3,000 member congregations to end capital punishment across the country. The announcement was made in Orlando, where NaLEC leadership voted in favour of capital punishment repeal. "As Christ followers, we are called to work toward justice for all", Coalition President, and lead pastor at Lamb's Church in New York, Gabriel Salguero, stated. "And as Latinos, we know too well that justice is not always even-handed", he added. LONG DISCERNMENT Salguero said the decision came after a years-long discernment process that included "prayer, reflection, and dialog with anti-death penalty organizations like Equal Justice USA (EJUSA)." Through...

Debra Milke: 22 years on Arizona's death row Released after spending 22 years on Arizona's death row, Debra Milke called her exoneration 'bittersweet.' Legal experts say the plight of exonerees such as Milke has played into how juries view the ultimate sanction. Until this week, Debra Milke, who spent 22 years on Arizona's death row, remained a ward of the state. After a Maricopa County judge on Monday dismissed all charges related to the 1989 murder of her son, Christopher, a deputy removed an ankle monitor. At that moment, Ms. Milke became a member of an exclusive club no one would voluntarily attend - one of the few who were walked by the US justice system to the threshold of state-sponsored death only to be fully released after courts found their conviction wrongful. The Milke case, which comes amid a string of death-row exonerations from North Carolina to Louisiana, has put renewed focus on what is for many one of the most troubling parts of t...

Debra Milke An Arizona woman who spent more than 2 decades on death row in her 4-year-old son's killing was exonerated Monday, bringing an end to a controversial case that relied almost entirely on the work of a detective with a long history of misconduct. Debra Milke hugged her supporters and sobbed as she left the courtroom, where a judge formally dismissed the case less than a week after prosecutors lost their final appeal. In a brief hearing, Judge Rosa Mroz also allowed Milke, who has been free on bond since 2013, to have her electronic-monitoring ankle bracelet removed. Milke emerged from a conference room a short time later without the device. "It feels good," Milke said, pulling up one pant leg to show her unencumbered ankle. Milke was convicted of murder in 1990 in the death of her son, Christopher. Authorities say Milke dressed him in his favorite outfit and told him he was going to see Santa Claus at a mall in December 1989. He was then tak...

Debra Jean Milke PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona's highest court has rejected a bid to retry a woman who spent 22 years on death row for killing her 4-year-old son but whose conviction was overturned. The decision Tuesday by the Arizona Supreme Court leaves prosecutors with dwindling options in the case against Debra Milke in her son Christopher's 1989 death.  The ruling moves the courts one step closer to permanently dismissing her case. Milke's conviction was thrown out two years ago by a federal appeals court that ruled prosecutors failed to disclose a history of misconduct by the case's investigator. Authorities have sought a retrial while Milke has remained free on bond since September 2013. Prosecutors insist Milke is guilty in her son's death. Milke maintains that she's innocent. Source: The Associated Press, March 17, 2015 Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com

Ray Krone I was the 100th person to be exonerated and released after being sentenced to death. Can we doubt there are more of us? A Maricopa County judge sentenced me to death in 1992. At the time of the murder for which I was convicted, the actual perpetrator, Ken Phillips, was on probation for a violent sexual offense. Three weeks after the crime for which I was sentenced to die, he sexually assaulted and choked a 7-year-old girl. He matched the description of a man seen near the location of the murder; it was later determined that shoe prints, palm prints and blood found at the scene matched him as well. After more than 10 years in prison, I was finally exonerated. I walked out of prison with a gate check for $50. I lost my home, U.S. Postal Service job, my personal possessions and 10 years of my life. Arizona has no compensation for wrongful convictions. Henry McCollum spent 30 years on death row before being exonerated. The real killer, a known violent sexual ...

In a scathing critique of Arizona's criminal justice system, a state appeals court on Thursday ordered the dismissal of murder charges against a woman who spent 22 years on death row in her son's killing. The Arizona Court of Appeals said the charges against Debra Jean Milke in the 1989 death of her son Christopher can't be refiled. A three-judge panel said it agrees with Milke's argument that a retrial would amount to double jeopardy. The court held that prosecutors' failure to turn over evidence that could have helped Milke's defense was egregious, calling the actions "a severe stain on the Arizona justice system." "Nondisclosure of this magnitude calls into question the integrity of the system and was highly prejudicial to Milke," the court wrote. "In these circumstances - which will hopefully remain unique in the history of Arizona law - the most potent constitutional remedy is required." Authorities say Milke...