Debra Jean Milke (née Sadeik; born March 10, 1964) is a German-American woman who spent over 25 years in prison in the state of Arizona. She was one of three people sentenced to death for the December 2, 1989, shooting death of her four-year-old son, Christopher Conan Milke. Her alleged conspirators were her boyfriend James Lynn Styers and his friend Roger Mark Scott. Neither testified against her and both agreed that she was not present at the shooting. Scott implicated Milke as the mastermind while Styers said she had no involvement whatsoever. They implicated each other as the actual shooter. Who that was remains a subject of speculation.

With the passage of time Milke's conviction became increasingly polarizing, largely due to the conduct and testimony of Phoenix police detective Armando Saldate Jr. Saldate testified that Milke confessed to him. The alleged confession was uncorroborated, however, and Milke is adamant it did not occur. Saldate was later accused of perjury. Questions about whether a confession was made and whether Milke had voluntarily waived her Miranda rights, Saldate's long history of misconduct, and prosecuting attorney Noel Levy withholding Saldate's personnel record from the defense, became central issues of Milke's appeals.

In March 2013, a three-judge panel of the United States Ninth Circuit Court unanimously overturned Debra Milke's conviction. In their ruling, the judges excoriated the conviction. Milke was released on $250,000 bond that September by Judge Rosa P. Mroz of the Maricopa County Superior Court. County prosecutor Bill Montgomery unsuccessfully appealed the decision to the state supreme court, which blocked a proposed retrial. On March 23, 2015, all charges against Debra Milke were formally dismissed with prejudice by Judge Mroz.

In 2020, Milke lost a civil suit claiming wrongful conviction. A federal judge found that Milke had tampered with evidence in the case at least 16 times. In 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the verdict against Milke. The ruling stated that Milke had knowingly and willingly destroyed thousands of documents about the case, including a journal written shortly after her conviction, documents she collected in prison, and boxes of documents by her mother concerning her criminal and habeas cases. She and her lawyers had also taken down a website and social media pages about her case. The ruling effectively ensures that Milke will never receive any compensation for her imprisonment.

Debra Milke (Sadeik) was born in West Berlin, West Germany, to a U.S. Air Force father and a German mother. In 1965 the Sadeik family moved to the U.S., where Milke attended high school and college. She married Mark Milke in 1984 and gave birth to one son, Christopher Conan Milke, in 1985. Debra and Mark divorced in 1988.

In August 1989, Debra Milke and her son Christopher Milke moved into an apartment with Jim Styers, a man she knew through her sister. On December 2, 1989, Styers took 4-year-old Christopher to the Metrocenter mall in Phoenix, Arizona. That afternoon he called Milke, who was doing laundry at the apartment, and told her that the boy had disappeared from the mall. Styers alerted mall security, while Milke dialed 9-1-1. A missing person investigation was launched. The next day Phoenix police arrested Roger Scott, a long-time friend of Styers. After more than fourteen hours of interrogation, Scott admitted that he knew where Christopher was and that the boy was dead. He directed the police to a desert area north of Phoenix, where Christopher's body was discovered. Christopher had been shot three times in the head. According to the lead case detective Armando Saldate Jr., Scott claimed that Styers had committed the murder and that Styers had told him Milke had "wanted it done." However, Scott would not testify against Milke at her trial.

Styers, who had helped in the initial search for Christopher, was arrested and interviewed by police after being implicated by Scott. Milke voluntarily went to the Pinal County sheriff's office where she was interrogated by Saldate. The interrogation was not recorded or witnessed by anyone other than Detective Saldate. Three days later, in a written report of the interrogation, Saldate indicated Milke had confessed to arranging the murder of her son Christopher.

Scott was offered a plea-bargain, 21 years in prison for second degree murder, in return for testifying against Milke and Styers. He wanted to take the deal but his lawyer rejected it.