Mike Mollinax is a man who was wrongfully convicted for the murder of his ex-wife Suzanne and her daughter Sheila.
Background[]
In 1971, Mike was a mean drunk who threatened his ex-wife Suzanne when she threw him out, including once threatening to burn her house down if he caught her with another man. After Suzanne was murdered and her house burned down, Mike knew that the police would believe that he was the killer and went on the run. After Mike attacked a girl he was having sex with, she turned him in the next day, and Mike was arrested for two counts of murder and one count of arson. Though Mike was in fact innocent and the prosecution didn't have much of a case, his history of alcoholism and abuse was enough to get him convicted in 1972 and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, in 1985, Mike got involved in a prison brawl that left a guard wounded and two inmates dead. Mike committed one of the murders, ostensibly in self-defense, but was never charged for it since he was already serving life in prison.
Scheherazade[]
At the end of his life, Judson Tierney confessed to his crimes, including the murder of Jack Colino, Suzanne's true killer, as well as the kidnapping of Sheila, whom he raised. While preparing to close Suzanne's murder, Detective Stabler learned of Mike's wrongful conviction and set out to clear his name with the help of Judson and ADA Novak. However, even though Mike could be exonerated for Suzanne's murder, he would subsequently be charged for the murder he committed in prison and remain locked up on that crime instead.
Stabler, who found witnesses that backed up Mike's story of self-defense, and Novak enlisted the help of Judge Elizabeth Donnelly to get the governor to pardon Mike. Though an outright pardon wouldn't work, Donnelly suggested getting the governor to pardon Mike for Suzanne's murder on the condition that he plead guilty to the prison murder. Mike could then get time served for the 34 years he spent in prison for murdering Suzanne, thus satisfying the prison sentence he would have to serve for killing the inmate. After the governor agreed to this and granted the pardon, Mike is released.