CHILLICOTHE, Mo.—After serving 43 years of a life sentence for a murder conviction that was recently overturned, Sandra Hemme, 64, was released from prison on Friday. Her release came despite last-minute attempts by Missouri’s attorney general to keep her incarcerated.
Hemme left the Chillicothe Correctional Center and was reunited with her family at a nearby park, where she shared an emotional moment with her sister, daughter, and granddaughter. “You were just a baby when your mom sent me a picture of you,” Hemme said. “You looked just like your mamma when you were little and you still look like her.” Her granddaughter laughed and replied, “I get that a lot.”
According to the Innocence Project, Hemme was the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman in the United States. On June 14, a judge ruled that Hemme’s attorneys had provided “clear and convincing evidence” of her “actual innocence,” leading to the overturning of her conviction. However, Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey continued to challenge her release in the courts.
“It was too easy to convict an innocent person and way harder than it should have been to get her out, even to the point of court orders being ignored,” said Hemme’s attorney Sean O’Brien. “It shouldn’t be this hard to free an innocent person.”
During a court hearing on Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman warned Bailey’s office that if Hemme was not released within hours, Bailey himself would have to appear in court on Tuesday. Horsman also criticized the attorney general’s office for instructing the prison to disregard the court order to release Hemme. “To call someone and tell them to disregard a court order is wrong,” he said.
Upon her release, Hemme declined to speak with reporters. O’Brien noted that she was going directly to see her father, who is hospitalized and in palliative care. “This has been a long time coming,” O’Brien said, emphasizing the emotional toll the delays had taken on Hemme and her family.
Despite her release, Hemme faces challenges ahead. “She’s going to need help,” O’Brien said, highlighting that she would not be eligible for social security benefits due to her long incarceration.
Over the past month, multiple courts, including a circuit judge, an appellate court, and the Missouri Supreme Court, agreed that Hemme should be released. However, she remained in prison due to continued legal maneuvers by Bailey, who sought to enforce additional sentences for decades-old prison assault cases.
Hemme was originally convicted for the 1980 stabbing death of library worker Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph, Missouri. Her release was further complicated by additional sentences for incidents that occurred while she was in prison. Bailey argued that Hemme posed a safety risk, but her attorneys countered that further incarceration would be “draconian.”
In his June ruling, Judge Horsman noted that Hemme was in a “malleable mental state” due to heavy sedation when she was interrogated in a psychiatric hospital after the killing. Her confession was described as monosyllabic responses to leading questions, and no physical evidence linked her to the crime.
The investigation had overlooked evidence pointing to Michael Holman, a fellow officer who died in 2015, and crucial FBI findings that could have exonerated Hemme were never disclosed. Evidence presented showed Holman’s involvement with the crime, including the use of Jeschke’s credit card and possession of her earrings.
Judge Horsman concluded that Hemme was “the victim of a manifest injustice,” leading to her eventual release.