Arizona woman's murder conviction, death sentence overturned

[Warren Stupidity]

Source: CNN

After 22 years on death row, Debra Milke is close to freedom.

A jury convicted the Arizona woman, now 49, of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse and kidnapping on October 12, 1990, less than a year after her 4-year-old son was found dead.

A judge sentenced her to death a few months later.

But those convictions and the related sentence were tossed out Thursday by a federal appeals court judge. In explaining his decision, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals chided the prosecution for remaining "unconstitutionally silent" on the "history of misconduct" of its key witness, a Phoenix police detective.


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/14/justice/arizona-death-sentence-overturned/index.html

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And the penalty for this malfeasance? Nothing as usual.

[Locut0s]

2. I think you mean there's no proof it's an "effective" punishment...

It certainly is a punishment. In fact that's sort of the problem, that's ALL it is.

There's no proof it acts as a deterrent of any sort to the types of horrific violent crimes it's metered out for. And in the absence of such proof all it is is a form of revenge on the part of the state. In fact it's state sanctioned revenge and teaches us emotionally that an eye for an eye is very much acceptable.

[bitchkitty]

3. Huh? n/t

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. It's a punishment, but it's not a deterrent

States that have the death penalty are no less violent than states that don't. Actually, states that don't have the death penalty have LOWER murder rates. It's also tremendously expensive, far more expensive than life without parole.

[AzDar]

4. Thank Dog.

[LeftInTX]

5. Good!!! That cop was so dirty

Too bad this took so many years.

(I thought her death penalty had been commuted to life years ago)

[DFW]

7. I have long maintained

We need a law dealing with capital cases where the death penalty might be imposed. It should state that in cases of someone being wrongly convicted due to gross negligence or willful concealment or manipulation of evidence, that the police involved, the prosecutor involved, and the sentencing judge should all suffer the same fate as the wrongly convicted. In this case, they would escape the death penalty themselves, but would spend twenty years, starting today, behind bars to contemplate the meanings of the words "wrongful" and "reasonable doubt." I figure this will cut down on executions in general, and exclude the execution of the innocent.

"Give some clout to reasonable doubt," I say.

[MillennialDem]

8. I have held this belief too, and yes I wish in such cases the prosecution and police were

put to death if there was ANY MISCONDUCT WHATSOEVER.

But I think it's easier to just get rid of the death penalty entirely.

[DFW]

9. I'm for giving them as good as they got

If an innocent is railroaded into a five year sentence, the ones who were deliberately responsible should go away for five years.

I agree that the death penalty should be abolished, but I think the best way to do that in a country as bloodthirsty as ours is to make it mandatory for those responsible for a wrongful death sentence to receive as good as they gave. Even the remotest chance of this happening should deter most death sentences from being handed out.

It's not Osama bin Laden I'm concerned about, but rather guys like Cameron Todd Willingham or Troy Davis.

[MillennialDem]

10. Well, a few things here

First regarding Osama Bin Laden or other people like him: he admitted what he did. I guess if a person whether they are a terrorist, a military leader, or an accused criminal if they want to ADMIT in public that they killed someone, fine give them the death penalty - but only if they admit it - and no a signed confession in front of the police is not good enough. It has to be a public admission of guilt.

Also regarding railroading. Yes, if the police or prosecution are found tampering with or hiding evidence they should be given the exact same sentence as the erroneously convicted.

In a death penalty case - since the death penalty serves no real purpose (life in prison accomplishes the same thing) yeah if there is a mistake the prosecution and the police should pay for it.