Story updated at 10 a.m. , Nov. 21, 2014
A 59-year-old woman who was convicted in 1997 of murdering a homeless man and who spent 17 years in prison because of what is now believed to have been fallacious testimony was declared by a judge in Torrance Friday to be factually innocent.
Susan Mellen said she was “so grateful” for the finding, which her attorney said would allow her to seek nearly $600,000 in restitution from the state for her incarceration.
The finding of factual innocence was announced by Superior Court Judge Mark S. Arnold, who overturned her conviction last month, saying it had been based on the testimony of a liar. Mellen was wrongfully convicted in 1997 of beating a homeless man to death.
“I feel really badly about what happened here,” Arnold said this morning.
The judge, who ordered Mellen freed late last month, said at a hearing on Oct. 10 that her conviction appeared to have been based on the account of a”habitual liar” who testified about Mellen’s purported confession to her involvement in the 1997 killing of Richard Daly.
Arnold said it also appeared that Mellen had received “sub-par representation” from her trial attorney, noting that a “thorough investigation” should have been done into June Patti’s credibility.
“Had it been done and had evidence been presented to the jury about June Patti’s lack of credibility, I believe that the jury would not have found Ms. Mellen guilty,” the judge said.
In the defense’s motion for a finding of innocence, Deirdre O’Connor of the Torrance-based Innocence Matters wrote that Mellen, a mother of three, has “presented consistent evidence of her innocence” and that “there is not a single reliable piece of evidence that points to her guilt.”
Patti, who died in 2006, told authorities that Mellen had confessed to the killing, but her credibility came into question during a fresh review of the case, with even her own sister — a Torrance police officer — describing her as a liar.
Patti had thousands of contacts with police in Washington state, where she had relocated, and she came to be known to investigators as an unreliable witness.
In a letter submitted to the judge, Deputy District Attorney Loren Naiman wrote that an investigation into the case has determined that Patti’s testimony “incriminating Susan Mellen in the murder of Richard Daly is doubtful.” The prosecutor, who did not handle Mellen’s trial, urged the judge to set aside her conviction and release her from custody.