In the case of Debra Milke I suspect Phoenix Detective Armando Saldate just made up her confession out of thin air.

But in most of these cases the police get confessions with the "9 Step Reid Method", which is pretty much a technique where the cops beat the krap out of a suspect with mental rubber hoses to get confessions.

The "9 Step Reid Method" works so well it routinely gets innocent people to confess to crimes they didn't commit.

Source

Laurie Roberts | azcentral opinions

Police and prosecutors failed us in Debra Milke case

Posted on March 15, 2013 4:49 pm by Laurie Roberts Police and prosecutors failed us in Debra Milke case

It seems somehow fitting that Arizona’s most notorious baby killer – make that now Arizona’s possibly most notorious baby killer – would see her conviction tossed out this week.

This week, the 50th anniversary of the arrest of Ernesto Miranda. Miranda’s rape conviction was tossed out by the U.S. Supreme Court when it ruled that suspects must be informed of their rights before they can be questioned by police.

Fifty years after Miranda’s interrogation by Phoenix police, Debra Milke’s conviction was thrown out this week because of substantial – and alarming – questions about her interrogation by Phoenix police.

Questions about whether she got a fair trial and just how far some police and prosecutors will go in their zeal to get a conviction.

“It’s scary when you see something like this because this could happen to any one of us at any time,” Milke’s attorney, Mike Kimerer, told me.

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals must agree because it forwarded its Milke opinion, issued Thursday, to the U.S. Attorney in Arizona and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, for possible investigation into whether there’s “a pattern of violating the federally protected rights of Arizona residents.”

It’s been more than 22 years since 4-year-old Christopher Milke was told he was going to see Santa and instead was taken into the desert and executed. For two decades, Debra Milke has lived on death row, put there by the testimony of a Phoenix detective who told jurors she confessed to ordering the boy’s 1989 execution.

Detective Armando Saldate testified that Milke confessed after acknowledging that she understood her Miranda rights. Milke said she didn’t understand and asked for an attorney but continued talking to defend herself and that Saldate twisted her words into a confession she never made.

It was his word against hers. There was no other direct evidence linking her to Christopher’s death.

Saldate didn’t tape the interview despite being asked to by a supervisor, and he didn’t have a witness to Milke’s confession though another detective waited just outside the room.

Saldate said in a 2010 hearing that he wasn’t required to tape interviews and didn’t like to because it “inhibited” conversation. Even so, he said he would have taped it but Milke objected.

The problem is, Saldate didn’t even bring a tape recorder to his meeting with Milke, at the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office in Florence, or ask to borrow one before going into the interview room.

Milke was sentenced to death in 1991.

Turns out Saldate had a history of trampling people’s Miranda rights and lying under oath to get convictions or to further prosecutions, according to the 9th Circuit opinion. Only police and prosecutors never disclosed that to Milke’s attorney or to the jury.

Never disclosed a 1973 incident when Saldate pulled over a woman for a traffic stop, took “liberties” with her and later lied about it to internal affairs investigators.

Never disclosed four court cases in which confessions or indictments had been been tossed out because Saldate lied to grand juries and judges.

Never disclosed four other cases in which confessions were suppressed or convictions tossed because Saldate violated suspects’ Miranda and other constitutional rights during interrogations.

Like the time he managed to get a statement out of an incoherent suspect hospitalized with a skull fracture, a guy who didn’t even know his own name or what year it was.

Or the time he interrogated a suspect who was in intensive care, drifting in and out of consciousness, and came up with something to use against him at trial.

In overturning Milke’s conviction, the appeals panel criticized both Phoenix police and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for failing to disclose Saldate’s misconduct.

“It’s hard to imagine anything more relevant to the jury’s — or the judge’s – determination whether to believe Saldate than evidence that Saldate lied under oath and trampled the constitutional rights of suspects, “ the judges wrote.

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote a scathing concurrence, saying “no civilized system of justice should have to depend on such flimsy evidence, quite possibly tainted by dishonesty or overzealousness, to decide whether to take someone’s life or liberty.”

Not even, presumably, in Maricopa County.

Attorney General Tom Horne plans to appeal, vowing Friday to personally argue the case before the Supreme Court.

“This is a horrible crime,” he said in a statement. “The Ninth Circuit’s decision needs to be reversed, and justice for Christopher needs to be served.”

Justice, indeed, needs to be served. Which why Horne might want to read the 60-page opinion and ask a few hard questions about what happened here.

An innocent woman might have been condemned to die because police and prosecutors cut corners.

Or a guilty woman may walk free.

APRIL/2009 When the Constable arrived I asked is there anyway I can buy more time? The Constable (ARMANDO SALDATE Jr) said "THERE ARE OTHER THINGS U CAN USE BESIDES MONEY". As I paced back and forth uttering the words to myself "other things you can use besides money , other things you can use besides money. I looked at him shrugged my shoulders and said you got me. I went into my second bedroom to check on my sick eighty year old aunt. When I came back out of the room the CONSTABLE (ARMANDO SALDATE Jr) was in my bedroom with his pants down to his ankles. Desperate and not wanting me and my family on the streets I reluctantly made a decision and had sex with him. I asked how do I know someone won't come and lock the place up the CONSTABLE said "there isn't anyone after me and he left he did not pad lock the doors and did not leave any signs saying do not enter. I stayed for seven weeks feeling horrible for the decision i made. I told my family, best friend, and my psychiatrist. I am consider a vulnerable adult because I am a Person with Serious Mental Illness (SMI). In May 2010 our unemployment was not reinstated and I was being evicted again realizing that I hadn't moved too far I was in the same jurisdiction. And the Constable (Armando Saldate Jr) would come out again I made the decision to report him. I googled the name ARMANDO SALDATE JR on my computer and that is when I first heard of DEBRA MILKE the first thing I said to myself was GOD HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HELP HER? I could feel it in my heart. Nevertheless i made a call to his supervisor that was on 06/08/2010. A week later i received a call and was told what the Constable did was a crime of extortion and would I be willing to file a formal complaint I agreed and two Phoenix police officers came to my apartment took my statement and I thought justice would be served. I would get the run around when I called the department and i couldn't get a detective on this case. Many officers were very rude and intimidating. When me and my family found out he was a retired 20 year homicide detective I fell to the floor. I finally got a detective from the Attorney Generals Office named Micheal Edwards who literally did nothing but made a phone call to my property management (who did not live on site and the detective was specifically told that). With bits of laughter Mr. Edwards then told me that he asked Armando Saldate Saldate pleaded the 5th and that was his constitutional right and I am closing this case. I said that's it your just going to let him retire (another couple of chuckels) and that's it. That was three years ago. I was going thru my files a couple of months ago and my diary of the Constable fell out. I began going over some highlights and discovered the timeline in 2010. (I began to do more research on Debra Milke). I always thought Mr. Saldate got off the hook so he could retire that was just the icing on the cake. Ms Milke was up for another appeal and Mr. Saldate testified at that hearing I also discovered the incident in 1973 were Saldate was suspended without pay for agreeing to meet with a woman for sex after work. He showed up and she didn't. I knew then that SPECIAL AGENT SUPERVISOR MICHEAL EDWARDS deliberately withheld information and suppressed evidence on this case so it would not reach the Milke's appeal or any future appeals. NOT ONLY WAS THAT A VIOLATION OF MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS IT IS CORRUPTION TO IT'S FINEST I NEVER HAD A CHANCE FOR JUSTICE. BUT I WILL NOW AND SO WILL DEBRA. SHE NEEDS US AND I DO TOO. WHAT THE ARIZONA PENILE SYSTEM HAD DONE AND ARE DOING IS DISGUSTING. I'M DEMANDING JUSTICE! WILL YOU STAND WITH ME TO BEGIN A COALITION OF FREEDOM FOR OUR RIGHTS! FOR HUMANITY! TWENTY THREE YEARS IS A LONG TIME FOR ANYONE TO SUFFER UNJUSTLY. HELP ME PLEASE I NEED AN ATTORNEY OR SOME TYPE OF LEGAL ENTITY. I CAN NOT TRUST THE POLICE AT ALL.