A Missouri woman who spent 43 years in prison for a murder she didn’t commit has finally been released.
Sandra Hemme, 64, pleaded guilty to murder in 1980 after officers wrongly accused her, days after she was released from a psychiatric hospital where she had spent most of her life since she was 12.
There was no evidence directly linking Hemme to the murder of library worker Patricia Jeschke, 31. However, detectives later found earrings in the home of former police officer Michael Holman in 2015 that are believed to belong to the victim.
Hours before her release, Attorney General Andrew Bailey was threatened with contempt of court by Judge Ryan Horsman for his repeated attempts to keep Hemme behind bars.
Sandra Hemme, 64, was released from prison this week after serving 43 years behind bars for a murder she did not commit
Hemme, 64, pleaded guilty to murder in 1980 after officers wrongly accused her just days after she was released from a psychiatric hospital where she had spent most of her life since she was 12.
The 64-year-old woman left the Chillicothe jail this week beaming with joy as she was greeted by her sister, daughter and granddaughter.
Hemme told her granddaughter, “You were just a baby when your mother sent me a picture of you… You looked just like your mother when you were little and you still look just like her.”
“I hear that often,” her granddaughter replied.
According to her legal team at the Innocence Project, Hemme was the longest-serving woman wrongfully imprisoned in the U.S.
Her innocence was first established by a judge on June 14, who ruled that Hemme’s lawyers had presented “clear and convincing evidence” that she killed Jeschke no more than 40 years ago.
“No evidence, apart from Mrs Hemme’s unreliable statements, links her to the crime,” the judge wrote at the time.
However, her release was soon challenged by Attorney General Bailey, because Hemme’s immediate release was complicated by the sentences she received for crimes she committed in prison.
There was no evidence that Hemme could be directly linked to the murder of library worker Patricia Jeschke, 31 (photo)
Hemme (pictured before her arrest) was questioned about the murder because she had been released from the psychiatric hospital the day before the victim’s body was found.
Investigators found earrings believed to belong to the victim in the home of former police officer Michael Holman in 2015 after his death
In 1996, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for attacking a prison officer with a razor, and in 1984, she was sentenced to two years in prison for “offering violence.” Bailey argued that Hemme posed a safety risk to herself and others and that she should now serve those sentences.
This led to a fierce battle in court, which ended with Judge Horsman threatening Bailey with contempt for his efforts.
The judge also criticized Bailey’s office for calling the warden and instructing prison officials not to release Hemme, when he had released her on her own initiative.
“I would advise you never to do that,” Horsman said, adding: “Calling someone and telling them to ignore a court order is wrong.”
The courts noted that there was evidence that “directly linked” Jeschke’s gruesome murder to Holman. A search of his home after his death in 2015 turned up gold horseshoe earrings that Jeschke’s father had given to his daughter.
Jeschke’s murder was discovered in November 1980 by her mother when she failed to show up for work.
She was found naked in her apartment, in a pool of blood, with her limbs tied with a telephone cord, a knife under her head and a pair of pantyhose around her throat.
Hemme’s lawyer said this week: ‘It was too easy to convict an innocent person and much harder than it should have been to get her released’
Hemme had been released from a nearby psychiatric hospital just one day before Jeschke’s body was found. Detectives took her in for questioning because they found the timing questionable.
During questioning, police described Hemme as “mentally confused” and accused another man of being the killer.
After it was discovered that the man was in a drug rehabilitation clinic at the time of Jeschke’s murder, Hemme became increasingly suspicious.
She pleaded guilty to the murder in exchange for the death penalty being lifted.
After her release, Hemme’s attorney Sean O’Brien condemned the legal chaos she had been trapped in for decades.
“It was too easy to convict an innocent person and much harder than necessary to free her, to the point of ignoring court orders,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be this hard to free an innocent person.”