USA - Arizona. The Arizona court of appeals dismissed charges against former death row inmate Debra Jean Milke and barred retrial

The Arizona court of appeals dismissed charges against Former Death Row Inmate Debra Jean Milke and barred retrial. Milke, 50, White, born in Germany, spent 22 years on death row for arranging the 1989 murder of her 4-year-old son. She was the first woman sentenced to death in Arizona since 1932. On March 14, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit overturned Milke's conviction because the prosecution had withheld evidence about misconduct committed by their primary witness, Phoenix Detective Armando Saldate, who testified that Milke had confessed to the murder. Saldate had previously been implicated of lying under oath, among other misconduct. There was no recording of a confession, and Milke insisted she was innocent and had never confessed. In its ruling today, the state court said it granted Milke's request for dismissal, “because of the state’s severe, egregious prosecutorial misconduct in failing to disclose impeachment evidence.” The court said a retrial for Milke would constitute double jeopardy but Maricopa County prosecutors said they plan to appeal the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court. The two men who were convicted of carrying out the murder are still on death row.