A woman who spent 17 years in prison for the murder of a homeless man was exonerated Friday by a Los Angeles County judge, The Associated Press reports.

“I believe that not only is Ms. Mellen not guilty, based on what I have read I believe she is innocent,” Judge Mark Arnold said, according to The AP. “For that reason I believe in this case the justice system failed.”

Arnold insisted Susan Mellen should not spend another minute behind bars. His declaration of her freedom was met by heavy applause. Mellen was released at the Torrance, California, courthouse.

Before she was freed, she had been serving a life sentence without possibility for parole.

Her case was revisited by Deidre O’Connor as the head of a project known as Innocence Matters, whose goal is to free the wrongly convicted.

O’Connor had discovered that the 1997 conviction of Mellen was based on the testimony of a notorious liar: June Patti declared in 1997 that she heard Mellen confess. However, she had a history of providing false information to law enforcement. Patti passed away in 2006.

Furthermore, one of three gang members who were linked to the death of the homeless man was given a polygraph test, during which he declared he was at the fatal bludgeoning of Richard Daly and Mellen was not.

Judge Arnold declared Mellen had had inadequate representation by her attorney at her initial trial.