Your voices and reactions

Two days later, on July 17th, 2004, Sherman from Louisiana commented like this:

"One can only be horrified after watching Debra Milke's story. I only thought that convictions like this happened in Mississippi or Louisiana. The govt. interferes in our lives too much as it is, so it seems to me that the feds would have intervened a long time ago for Debra Milke. Even if she did plot to kill her son the prosecutors didn't come close to proving it w/out a reasonable doubt. Cases like this make my blood boil because it shows that anyone could be convicted just on the word of some redneck cop who is too lazy to do his/her job, which is to protect all citizens rights. The real criminals in this case are the cops, prosecutors, jury and most of the trial judge who let this travesty happen in the first place. She should be put in prison until Debra is released so she can realize how the wheels of justice turn (and how corroded they are in this particular case)."

Sally from Oregon sent this eMail on July 15th, 2004 [apparently to Debra's mother RENATE]:

"I just finished watching a documentary about your daughter and I feel a misjustice has occurred. I will keep you and your daughter in my prayers and hope that one day she gets a new trial."

More words of encouragement and support reached us from Minnesota. With them, COLETTE wrote:

"Hello, I just watched the A&E American Justice about the murder of the son of Debra Milke, and I am a mother of twins and I felt that at times I was not a good mother like she did, but I am sure like myself deep down inside she knew there are worse mothers and I'll bet her son knew and thought she was the "BEST" mother! I consider my twin daughters and myself sisters and I don't know what I'd do without them there are times when I get stressed out do I even think about killing them? NO! and I know she wouldn't even think of killing her son! What I think about doing is running away!! And that is soooo very much normal that mothers as well as fathers think that they don't want children for a night or two! That is so normal! I know she didn't kill her son because of the way she said she felt after giving birth to him - having him gave her life meaning and direction and purpose. That's what told me all I needed to know. There are a lot of jerks out there but the 5000$ motive idea really was the most pathetic prosecutors invention I ever heard! And the rest of the whole case and those involved in it I have to say made me for REAL want to throw up!! I wrote down all the names of the "courtroom characters" because I would like to do something whatever I can to get Debra a new FAIR trial. I will tell my daughters about it in the morning I know they will want to help this poor mother who is broken because her son was murdered! Please tell her for me I know where she was and is coming from and she is not manipulative or selfish in any way! Men manipulated her and killed her son and I know she didn't know about it! Sorry this is so long but I am really sick about this and God Bless you who are on the obvious innocent side! Sincerely, Colette"

Anopther interesting statement was sent to us by ROBERT, who is from California:

"I spent 25 years as a private investigator, and I can tell you no one can come up with a 7 page single-spaced type-written report from a 30 min. interview. I specialized in in-person interviews with hand-written signed statements or notes. It takes 30 min just to establish a report. It takes time to write the notes. It is not possible to even elicit sufficient information to make such a lengthy report, even with a tape recording. No one, I mean no one, throws their notes away. I am especially fascinated with the physical impossibility of generating 7 pages of report from a 30 min interview. You should do some work in this area. Some experiments with detectives doing 30 min interviews might be fruitful. The rest of the evidence looks pretty bad, but the confession looks physically impossible to me."

On the same day the previous comment came in, we also received these lines of PATRICIA, who stated:

"I just watched the A&E story about Debbie tonight (3/3). I am so glad that it showed the case in a true light regarding the detective.
Debbie's ex is a real piece of work. He has a lot of nerve to be finger pointing at Debbie or anyone for that matter. No one is perfect. I'm a mom and I'm not perfect. But for him to sit there and say all these terrible things about her and act 'holier than thou' is laughable! The best thing Debbie ever did was divorce Mark. Just because she made the statement that she didn't want Christopher to turn out like Mark doesn't mean she had anything to do with the murder of Christopher. Who would want ANY CHILD to model Mark's behavior with drugs and alcohol? Not me!
Tell Debbie and her mom to hang in there. I serve a God that is sovereign. The truth will come out!"

On March 4th, 2004 a female viewer of the 'American Justice' show commented:

"Hi, I just saw this case on American Justice on A&E tonight. I wanted to tell you I think you're daughter got a bogus rap from the prosecutor and judge in this case. I don't think that they should have allowed the police officer to say what he claims to have been a confession when clearly he didn't have any evidence. I hope that the truth comes out and the guilty party pays."

After a lengthy discussion via eMails a male reader of the website, WILLIAM from LA, eventually concluded and sent these following lines to us on February 16th, 2004. We wholeheartedly agree with the result of his 'research':

"After reading the webmaster's summary of the case a light bulb suddenly went off inside my head. It was Debbie's reaction when Jim called from Metro Center in the presence of Patrick Murphy that turned the light on for me. She then immediately called her dad to tell him that Chris was missing. Patrick saw that she needed something to calm her down & fixed her a drink. In order for this 'reaction' to have been planned out beforehand it would have to be rehearsed over & over. The only person capable of such planning would be Debbie (the other two OBVIOUSLY wouldn't have the mental capacity to plan it out). I don't believe Debbie would have planned her son's murder for $5,000.00. It obviously wasn't planned out by Debbie (or any one else for that matter) because it all fell apart so rapidly. I don't believe Jim wanted to be rid of Chris because why would he risk prison over it when they would be moving out soon and that would take care of that problem. The only motive I could see Jim needing for such a scenario would be to get Chris out of the way so he could 'get it on' with Debbie (she is, after all, a very pretty woman), but that falls apart also because Debbie liked the way he treated Chris; it seems like he would have tried to show Debbie what a great father he would make if he really wanted Debbie's body. The last motive left would be that he was confused about Debbie moving out of his apartment & ultimately out of his life and maybe this would bring them together. But that scenario also falls apart completely almost immediately. It is because of this I now believe that the whole thing just sort of popped into Roger's head; because he couldn't stand Chris, while they were out there watching gliders (or whatever) & he came up with the $250.00 scenario to cover his own rear end. The press, being the press, ran with a story that would obviously sell a LOT of newspapers. Period. The way the press is treating our President shows me they can lie about anything. Therefore, because of the press, the jury came from a town already enraged by a "slutty" (not my real feelings about her) mother contracting her own son's death for the paltry sum of $5,000.00. I am now a true believer. (There are still some questions I have about this; but I'm sure we'll clear them up later)."

On February 12th we received this eMail from a female visitor to your website, KELLY from UK:

"I cannot believe that this woman is on death row, whatever is this world coming to. I have been reading through this website and have stopped because I cannot believe this at all. This poor woman has not only lost something so precious to her, but the justice system has let her down also. Please, please if there is anything I can do, write letters whatever please let me know. Emotionally, how is Debbie? I am very angry and upset to how this woman has been treated and cannot begin to imagine what she is going through, but I pray for her. Take care, Kelli.
Please keep me updated."

And a female viewer of the coverage, MARGOT, also revealed her opinion to us on the same day:

"I just watched Debbie's case for the first time on "Cold Case Files" (the TV show), but it wasn't until I read in Debbie's own words (that no one in her family had shown up when they took her to the police station) ... that I just lost it and began to cry. (To many, that would make her look guilty, but I have been in similar situations in my life, and I know first hand what it is like when there is no one sticking up for you.) (...) I think that Debbie is a remarkably strong person (even though she feels at times that she is crumbling on the inside), and she must be reminded of her strength and that there are people who care about seeing justice done. (...) I find it profoundly sad that someone could be convicted, and sentenced to death, not due to evidence of a crime, but due to an irrelevant and probably jealous opinion, of a rival sibling. In fact, it might not be a bad idea to present this case to people like Susan Sarrandon (sic) (and others in Hollywood, who truly care about human rights). Maybe it will take a big screen movie to finally set Debbie free. (...) Hi again. just wanted to make a correction to my previous email. I thought it had been "Cold Case Files" that I was watching, but the name of the program may have been "American Justice". The two shows run back to back, so I must be getting the names confused. (It is re-airing at the moment, and I am taping it to keep a copy of Debbie's story to show my friends.) It is so terrible that such an awful, awful thing could happen to such a wonderful person."

The outrage about Debra's case also continued when 'American Justice' replayed their coverage on February 5th, 2004. BRYAN from Texas wrote:

"I just watched the case on A&E, and firmly believe that the young lady got a rotten deal, I was a peace officer for over 30+ year and in all that time I never took a case to court on a confession as was the case in her conviction. (...) I don't get involved normally but this one was screamed for attention. (...) I wholeheartedly agree with your deductions, inadequate primary defense counsel and improper evidence not to mention the allowing family to say things that had nothing to do with the crime. I will continue to examine the information on your web-site, if I see anything I think will help I will write again. (...) So you remain strong and know that in the end we will overcome this injustice, and keep believing the idea of the U.S.A. being a law biding country as it is. And we don't like people being convicted as in this case, if guilty yes but not in this case! Sincerely, Bryan XXX."

A steady supporter of Debra, JENNIFER [also see post of 08/22/03], commented the sneaky attack of December 3rd, 2003 and concluded on January 3rd:

"(...) I am appalled at the latest "reaction" on the web. That completely makes me sick. How could anyone act like that. Words cannot express how "pissed" I was when I read it!!!!
Being that I have followed this now almost a year and although I have never met Debbie I was sickened. I feel so bad that anyone could make those remarks!!!!! How ignorant can people be???? (...)"

JANE, a female reader of this website from Connecticut, shared her opinion with us on January 2nd, 2004:

"I firmly believe that Miss Debra Jean did not have a hand in her sons death. She was a mom that loved her son with every fiber of her being. she was a devoted mother; one that lived and breaths for her child. she had no knowledge these two horrible men were about to commit such a horrible act. I feel so sorry Debra is in prison. please give her my warmest regards and tell her I will keep her in my thoughts.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely, Jane XXX"