Sandra Hemme, an American citizen who has spent 43 years in jail for a crime she did not commit, was eventually set free on Saturday despite the Missouri attorney general’s attempts to keep her there.
She has been serving a life sentence at the Chillicothe Correctional Center for killing library worker Patricia Jeschke in St Joseph, Missouri in 1980.
It was at a nearby park where the 64-year-old embraced her sister, daughter and granddaughter.
“You were only a baby when your mother sent me this picture of you,” she said. “When you were little you looked just like your mother and still do.”
Judge Ryan Horsman had initially held on June 14th that there was clear evidence provided by Hemme’s lawyers which proved her innocence thus overturning her conviction whence Republican attorney general Andrew Bailey made moves against her release.
Horsman warned him that he would hold his office in contempt if Hemme wasn’t released within hours and also reprimanded the state attorney general’s office over its command to prison officials to ignore court orders.
In addition O’Brien expressed annoyance at how difficult it can be to get an innocent person out even with court orders; “It shouldn’t be this hard to free an innocent person,” he said. He also observed that she would need help since she would not qualify for social security after all those years spent imprisoned.
Bailey continued filing motions seeking additional time from years-old jail assaults against Hemme despite multiple courts having agreed that she should be freed. Many legal experts found such efforts shocking given the substantial evidence suggesting Hemme’s innocence.
According to Judge Horsman’s thorough review of the case, Hemme was heavily drugged and in an emotionally weak condition during many rounds of questioning in a mental hospital after the murder.
The St Joseph Police department ignored some leads pointing to fellow officer Michael Holman, who died in 2015 while the prosecution was not apprised of FBI findings that could have exonerated Hemme.
In Horsman’s words, Hemme is “the victim of a manifest injustice.”
