PHOENIX – Debra Milke was once one of the most reviled mothers around, convicted of dressing her 4-year-old son in his favorite outfit and sending him off to visit a mall Santa Claus with two men who shot the boy execution-style in the Arizona desert.

Milke said she had nothing to do with Christopher’s death, but a detective testified at her 1990 trial that she had confessed to him – and him alone – in a closed interrogation room. Prosecutors said she had her son killed to collect on a $5,000 insurance policy.

Now, Milke could walk free, leaving death row behind after a federal appeals court threw out her conviction Thursday because prosecutors had not turned over evidence of the detective’s history of misconduct, including lying under oath in other cases.