susan King

Cause of Conviction: Manslaughter
County: Spencer
Trial/Plea: Plea
Race: White
Year 2008
Sentence: 10 Years
Time Served: 6 Years
Date Sentence Vacated: October 9, 2014
Reason Sentence Vacated: Evidence that another person committed the offense​
Cause of Wrongful Conviction: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel; Police Misconduct

​In 1998, Susan King’s ex-boyfriend was shot twice, and his body was dumped from the Gratz Bridge into the Kentucky River. King was then a 38-year-old, 108-pound female whose left leg had been amputated from the hip down. Kentucky State Police investigated and pursued many leads, interviewed over 40 people, and reconstructed Breeden’s movements on the day that he disappeared. However, Breeden’s murder remained unsolved. During the initial investigation in 1998, King was a suspect but was not arrested after the chief detective determined she was not involved. But in 2006, Detective Todd Harwood reopened the cold case. Harwood decided that King had killed Breeden in her kitchen, then tied him up and slid his body along the floor of her home, put the body in the trunk of her car, and thereafter dumped the body into the river.

Harwood perjured himself during his testimony before the grand jury regarding forensic evidence, telephone activity between King and Breeden, and neglected to tell grand jurors about King's amputation. The grand jury indicted King for murder and tampering with physical evidence in 2007. King entered a guilty plea pursuant to North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970), to the amended charge of Manslaughter, 2nd degree with a sentence of ten years, and to the charge of Tampering with Physical Evidence with a sentence of five years. The sentences in King’s two cases were run concurrently for a total of ten years. 

The Kentucky Innocence Project, assisted by law students from the University of Kentucky School of Law, investigated King’s case. In 2012, KIP was contacted by Louisville Metro Police Detective Barron Morgan, who had arrested Richard Jarrell for the attempted murder of a confidential informant. Jarrell volunteered to confess to two Jefferson County murders in addition to the Breeden murder in exchange for a lighter sentence for his brother. He then confessed, in vivid detail, to killing Kyle Breeden on Jarrell’s 21st birthday. The confession evidenced knowledge of the murder that only the killer could have known. Jarrell stated that he was aware that a woman had been convicted of Breeden’s murder, and that she was currently incarcerated for the crime. 

Harwood interviewed Jarrell days later and claimed he had recorded the conversation, but later said he had lost the recording. Morgan thereafter recorded a conversation with Jarrell where he claimed that Harwood told him he would not get help for his brother and that the case against King was airtight. Harwood advised Jarrell that Susan only had a couple of years left on her sentence. After Harwood’s interview of Jarrell, Jarrell ceased cooperating and did not disclose information about the other two unsolved murders he committed in Jefferson County. Harwood was subsequently ordered to only have contact with Jarrell if a supervisor was present. 

A hearing was held on KIP’s motion for a new trial. The circuit court denied the motion, believing that because King had entered a plea, she was not entitled to a new trial. KIP appealed that decision and, in 2014, the Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned the decision and ordered a new trial.

Finally, on October 9, 2014, the Commonwealth of Kentucky dismissed all charges against King. King now lives close to her family and has adopted a poodle-mix dog named Emmy. ​ ​

For more information on the case:

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4517