As Casey Anthony soon returns to a society that wants no part of her, a woman in her late 40s continues to sit on Arizona's death row, convicted nearly two decades ago of killing her 4-year-old son.
Deborah Milke's case was a huge one in the Valley, though it paled (they all do, except for maybe O.J. and the Lindbergh Baby trials) compared to the recently completed Anthony case.
Here's a blog item we did on Milke before Casey's trial.
We predicted at the time that the young Florida woman would land in the same terrible situation as Milke, i.e. death row.
Man, were we wrong about that, but that, as they say, is what makes horse races.
Milke's co-conspirators, James Lynn Styers and Roger Wayne (bad middle name for killers) Scott, also were convicted of first-degree murder in separate trials.
The pair later joined Milke, who was the alleged mastermind of the vile plot, on death row.
Milke didn't actually kill little Christopher -- she was home in Phoenix at the time. But the jury convicted her of putting her roommate Styers up to it.
Under a pretext of "going to see Santa Claus," Styers and his pal Scott instead took Christopher out to the desert north of Phoenix where one of them (probably Styers) shot him three times in the head and left him where he fell, chewing gum clenched between his teeth.
The plot, such as it was, fell apart within a few days.
Prosecutors theorized that Debbie's motive for murder was that Christopher was putting a crimp in her desired lifestyle (sound familiar, Anthony trial watchers?), which included a relationship with a young single guy who didn't want the burdens of step-fatherhood.
Milke took the stand in her own defense, and totally blew it -- just as the pathologically lying Casey Anthony would have had she made the mistake of testifying a few weeks ago.
The jury convicted her in short order.
Milke continues to appeal her conviction, to no avail.
Whether she ever will be executed remains to be seen.
Justice, as they call it, can be quite fickle.
