A Missouri woman who spent 43 years in prison for a murder she did not commit has finally been freed.
Sandra Hemme, 64, pleaded guilty to a 1980 murder after police wrongfully 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, although investigators later found earrings believed to belong to the victim at the home of former police officer Michael Holman in 2015.
Just hours before his release, Attorney General Andrew Bailey was threatened with contempt by Judge Ryan Horsman for his repeated efforts to keep Hemme behind bars.
Sandra Hemme, 64, was released from prison this week after spending 43 years behind bars for a murder she did not commit.
Hemme, 64, pleaded guilty to a 1980 murder after police wrongfully accused her 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 walked out of the Chillicothe prison this week and beamed with joy as she was greeted by her sister, daughter and granddaughter.
Addressing her granddaughter, Hemme said: ‘You were just a baby when your mother sent me a picture of you… You looked a lot like your mom when you were little and you still look like her.’
“I get that a lot,” her granddaughter replied.
According to her legal team at the Innocence Project, Hemme was the longest known unjustly imprisoned woman in the United States.
Her innocence was originally ruled by a judge on June 14, finding that Hemme’s lawyers had established “clear and convincing evidence” that she did not kill Jeschke more than 40 years ago.
“There is no evidence, other than Ms. Hemme’s unreliable statements, linking her to the crime,” the judge wrote at the time.
But his release was quickly challenged by Attorney General Bailey, and Hemme’s immediate freedom was complicated by sentences he received for crimes committed while behind bars.
There was no evidence directly linking Hemme to the murder of library worker Patricia Jeschke, 31 (pictured).
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 have belonged to the victim at the home of former police officer Michael Holman in 2015, after her death.
In 1996, he received a 10-year sentence for attacking a prison employee with a razor blade, and in 1984, a two-year sentence for “offering to commit violence.” Bailey had argued that Hemme posed a risk to his safety and that of others and should begin serving those sentences now.
This led to a back-and-forth battle in court that ended with Judge Horsman threatening Bailey with contempt for his efforts.
The judge also reprimanded Bailey’s office for calling the warden and telling prison officials not to release Hemme after he ordered her to be released on her own recognizance.
“I would suggest that they never do that,” Horsman said, adding: “Calling someone and telling them to ignore a court order is wrong.”
The courts said evidence “directly linked” Jeschke’s gruesome murder to Holman, and that a search of her home after her death in 2015 turned up gold horseshoe-shaped earrings that Jeschke’s father said he had given to his daughter.
Jeschke’s murder in November 1980 was discovered by her mother when she failed to show up for work.
She was found naked inside her apartment in a pool of blood, with her limbs bound by a telephone wire, a knife under her head and a pair of pantyhose around her neck.
Hemme’s lawyer said this week: “It was too easy to convict an innocent person and much harder than it should have been to free her.”
Hemme had been released from an area psychiatric hospital just a day before Jeschke’s body was discovered, and detectives brought her in for questioning after finding the timing of the crime questionable.
Police described Hemme as “mentally confused” during questioning, and she accused another man of being the killer.
After it was discovered that the man was in an alcohol treatment center at the time Jeschke was killed, Hemme came under increasing suspicion.
He pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for having the death penalty waived.
Following her release, Hemme’s lawyer, Sean O’Brien, condemned the legal crisis in which she had been mired for decades.
“It was too easy to convict an innocent person and much harder than it should have been to free him, even to the point where court orders were ignored,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be that difficult to free an innocent person.”