An Arizona woman who spent 22 years on death row after being convicted of conspiring to murder her son in a case that rested on the work of a detective with a history of misconduct says regaining her freedom was vindicating but bittersweet. 
 
 On Monday, a judge formally dismissed murder charges against Debra Milke, ending what her lawyers called a “living nightmare” that spanned nearly half her life. After her son was found dead, the now-discredited Phoenix police detective Armando Saldate claimed Milke confessed to arranging her son’s murder, even though there was no witness or recording. 
 
 “I had absolutely nothing to do with the brutal murder of my son, Christopher, and I did not give a confession to Mr Saldate,” Milke said through tears during an emotional press conference in Phoenix on Tuesday. “I always believed this day would come. I just didn’t think it would have to take 25 years, three months and 14 days to rectify such a blatant miscarriage of justice.” 
 
 Milke was convicted of the murder of her four-year-old son Christopher in 1990 and later sentenced to death. Prosecutors argued in court that she recruited two male friends to kill her son in December 1989 so she could collect an insurance policy on him. 
 
 Saldate’s testimony was the only evidence that connected Milke to the murder. However, at the time, prosecutors did not disclose, and defense attorneys did not have access to, the detective’s personnel records, which showed a history of lying under oath and misconduct. 
 
 Milke’s conviction and death sentence were thrown out in March 2013 by the US ninth circuit court of appeals, citing “egregious prosecutorial misconduct”. In a damning ruling, federal appellate judge Alex Kozinski wrote: “The constitution requires a fair trial. This never happened in Milke’s case.” 
 
 In mid-March, Milke’s attorneys filed a lawsuit seeking damages from the city of Phoenix, Maricopa County and numerous individuals involved in the case, including Saldate. The complaint contends that Milke is a victim of “malicious prosecution”, and that authorities violated her civil rights by denying her a fair trial. 
 
 Arizona is one of several states without a statute guaranteeing those wrongfully convicted are compensated for their lost time. The Innocence Project, which works to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, recommends states pass compensation statutes that guarantee fixed sum or a range of recovery for each year spent in prison, so that who are convicted are not left with nothing after their release. 
 
 
 
 In her remarks, Milke recalled her young son Christopher, who she described as a “sweet and affectionate child” who loved to make people laugh. She said his favorite toy was his Big Wheel, and he loved slamming on the brakes and spinning out. He also loved popping the bubbles she would blow with her chewing gum. She said he would giggle as it popped on her face and beg her to do it again. 
 
 
 
 “I have countless memories, precious memories, of Christopher etched in my heart and mind. No one can ever desecrate them and no one can ever take them away from me,” she said. 
 
 Then, breaking down into tears, she added: “I live with an abiding sense loss and a chunk of my heart is gone. But Christopher’s spirit is with me always, which is a comfort to the remaining pieces of my broken heart.” 
 
 Milke appeared at the press conference with her lawyers, Michael Kimerer and Lori Voepel, who commended their client for her buoyant spirit throughout the years. 
 
 “I sit here today in a state of disbelief that we’ve gotten to this point. This case has been a nightmare to Debra Milke for over 25 years,” Kimerer said. “We had tears, we had heartbreaks but we always came back because of Debra.” 
 
 Through the more than two decades of legal appeals, Milke has always maintained her innocence and consistently denied confessing to her son’s murder. 
 
 During the trial, authorities alleged that she told her son her roommate, James Styers, was taking the four-year-old to the mall to see Santa Claus, but instead took him to the desert and killed him. Styers and Roger Scott, his friend, were convicted of the boy’s murder and remain on death row. Neither testified to Milke’s involvement in the plot. 
 
 Asked if she agreed the right men were convicted in her son’s killing, Milke hesitated and deflected the question to her lawyer. 
 
 “Definitely somebody should be on death row of the two men that were there [in the desert]. One or both. And they should be there [on death row] and they should be punished for such a horrific crime,” Kimerer said. 
 
 He added later: “What really happened out there on that day? Who was really responsible? Why would this happen? Why would they want to kill this boy? There’s all kinds of different theories and concepts.” 
 
 One version, Kimerer detailed, is that Styers desired a romantic relationship with Milke, who was planning to move out and he killed her son in a desperate attempt to keep her from leaving. He noted that Styers suffered head trauma during the Vietnam war and struggled with PTSD, stemming from an incident when he killed a young Vietnamese boy. 
 
 In her closing remarks, Milke urged state lawmakers to pass a law requiring police officers to record their interrogations, so that what happened to her couldn’t happen to anyone else. 
 
 
 
 “Injustice does not discriminate. What happened to me can happen to anyone, as it has already, hundreds of times over, thus far across the country … If you don’t believe this could happen, you’re either misinformed or in a deep state of denial,” she said. Arizona is one of a majority of US states that doesn’t compel officers to record their interrogation of a suspect. 
 
 As for what she will do with her freedom, Milke said she did not yet know. 
 
 “This is bittersweet,” Milke said. “This is not happiness.” ||||| Story highlights Debra Milke is driven away from the Phoenix jail where she was being held 
 
 She was convicted of murder in her son's death and given the death penalty 
 
 A judge tossed her conviction; the jury didn't know a detective's "history of misconduct" 
 
 Arizona's attorney general vowed to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court 
 
 For the first time in well over a decade -- and months since a federal judge overturned her murder conviction -- Debra Milke is free. 
 
 A short time after the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office indicated she would be leaving, video showed someone who appeared to be Milke being driven away Friday from the Lower Buckeye Jail in Phoenix. Sheriff's office spokesman Brandon Jones subsequently confirmed that Milke had been released. 
 
 Even though she's no longer behind bars -- leaving the jail without addressing reporters -- Milke's legal ordeal may not be over. 
 
 Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said in March that his office would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court the judge's decision to toss her conviction and the death sentence that went with it. 
 
 Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' Chief Judge Alex Kozinski ruled this spring that Milke did not receive a fair trial. 
 
 Milke still faces charges and was released on bond pending the possibility of a retrial. 
 
 Arizona woman's murder conviction, death sentence overturned 
 
 Milke's legal team will at some point address the media about their client's release, though it's not known when, said one of the lawyers, Lori Voepel. 
 
 Horne's office referred requests for comment to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which is now handling the matter. The prosecutor's office is not discussing the case, its spokesman Jerry Cobb said Friday. 
 
 A jury convicted Milke 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. She was sentenced to death a few months later. 
 
 A day after seeing Santa Claus at a mall, young Christopher Milke asked his mother if he could go again. That was the plan, she said, when the boy got into the car with Milke's roommate, James Styers. 
 
 Styers picked up a friend, "but instead of heading to the mall, the two men drove the boy out of town to a secluded ravine, where Styers shot Christopher three times in the head," according to Kozinski's summary of the case. Styers was convicted of first-degree murder in the boy's killing and sentenced to death. 
 
 During her trial, "no ... witnesses or direct evidence (linked) Milke to the crime" other than Phoenix police Detective Armando Saldate Jr., according to Kozinski. 
 
 The detective questioned Milke -- an interrogation that wasn't recorded or seen by anyone else -- and later said she had confessed to her role in the murder conspiracy, saying it was a "bad judgment call." 
 
 But Milke offered a vastly different view of the interrogation and denied that she had admitted to any role in a murder plot. 
 
 "The judge and jury believed Saldate," Kozinski wrote in his March ruling overturning Milke's murder conviction. "But they didn't know about Saldate's long history of lying under oath and other misconduct." 
 
 The judge explained that he had made his decision because prosecutors did not disclose the "history of misconduct" of its key witness. 
 
 The defense and the jury did not know that previous judges had tossed out four confessions or indictments because Saldate had lied under oath, among other issues. 
 
 Horne, the Arizona attorney general, has argued Milke should remain on death row, given his understanding of what happened. 
 
 "After dressing him up and telling him he was going to the mall to see Santa Claus, Milke was convicted of sending her young son off to be shot, execution style, in a desert wash," he said.
– An Arizona woman's "living nightmare" is over, her lawyers say. But for Debra Milke, her freedom "is bittersweet," she says. "This is not happiness." After 22 years on death row, Milke was cleared of murder charges earlier this week related to the death of her 4-year-old son, who was shot by Milke's roommate and another man in 1989. She was originally convicted of conspiring to murder her son based on the testimony of detective Armando Saldate, who had a history of lying under oath. "I had absolutely nothing to do with the brutal murder of my son, Christopher, and I did not give a confession to Mr. Saldate," an emotional Milke, 51, said in her first comments yesterday, per the Guardian. "I always believed this day would come. I just didn't think it would have to take 25 years, three months, and 14 days to rectify such a blatant miscarriage of justice." "I live with an abiding sense of loss and a chunk of my heart is gone," she continued. "But Christopher's spirit is with me always, which is a comfort to the remaining pieces of my broken heart." Milke's lawyer says there is still a question of motive for Christopher's killers, James Styers and Roger Scott, now on death row. One theory, however, is that Styers killed Milke's son because he wanted a romantic relationship with Milke, who was about to move out. Though the Guardian notes Milke will not be retried, a prosecutor says he could secure another conviction with new witnesses who could testify to incriminating comments Milke made, the AP reports. When asked why bullets in her purse matched the caliber used to kill her son, Milke said she put them there when she found them in Styers' laundry. "Clearly, I forgot they were in my purse," she said. Milke is now pressing for a law forcing police to record all interrogations.