Missouri woman freed from prison after serving 43 years for a murder she did not commit

An emotional scene unfolded early Friday evening as a woman who was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for more than 43 years finally walked out the doors of a Missouri prison.

Sandra “Sandy” Hemme, 64, was freed after a judge found her innocent in a 1980 murder.

Her prison term marks the longest known wrongful conviction of a woman in U.S. history, according to information from the National Registry of Exonerations .

Around 5:50 p.m., Hemme was released from Chillicothe Correctional Center, about 90 minutes northeast of Kansas City.

She was escorted out with her attorney Sean O’Brien and embraced by several family members near the entrance to the prison.

Hemme’s release had been expected since June 14 when Livingston County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman issued an 118-page order saying she is innocent in the Nov. 12, 1980, murder of Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph.

Buchanan County prosecutors were to decide if they would re-try Hemme or dismiss the charges. But prosecutor Michelle Davidson did not publicly announce a decision and did not respond to requests for comment about the case.

On July 9, Horsman issued an order for Hemme’s release. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office called the warden and prevented her release, though no stay was in place.

Bailey’s office fought Hemme’s innocence case and then her release, filing motions in Livingston County and with the Western District Court of Appeals and the Missouri Supreme Court. On Thursday, the high court overruled the attorney general’s motion to stay her release.

During a heated hearing on Friday, Horsman threatened to hold officials with the attorney general’s office in contempt if they further prevented her release.

“I would suggest, counsel, you never do that again,” Horsman told Assistant Attorney General Andrew Clarke regarding their calls to the warden, adding that it was “wrong, absolutely wrong.”

Horsman said if Hemme was not released by 6 p.m. Friday, he expected anyone with the attorney general’s office who was involved as well as Attorney General Andrew Bailey to appear in his courtroom at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Hemme’s legal team noted that her father had been hospitalized and was receiving palliative care as of this week. She was planning to see him as soon as she was freed.

Minutes after her release, Hemme greeted family members at a nearby park. Wearing black rimmed eyeglasses, a white T-shirt and gray sweatpants, she smiled and hugged several family members, telling one of the adults that she had not see her since she was a little kid.

Hemme will live with her sister, Joyce Kays, who said she was “just happy.”

O’Brien said the rare occasion was joyous, but that Hemme will need help because she has spent most of her life, from age 20 to 64, in prison.

“It was too easy to convict an innocent person and way harder to get her out, even to the point of a court order being ignored,” he said.

Killer believed to be a cop

Officers interviewed Hemme several times while she was a psychiatric patient. She was convicted on statements she made to police, though many were contradictory. No forensic evidence linked Hemme to the murder and she did not have a motive.

“Evidence directly” ties a former St. Joseph Police Department officer to the crime, Horsman wrote in the June judgment. Michael Holman was questioned once as a suspect but never arrested in Jeschke’s death. He died in 2015.

Holman’s truck was seen in the area the day of the murder, his alibi could not be corroborated and he used Jeschke’s credit card after he said he found it in a purse in a ditch. A pair of gold horseshoe-shaped earrings identified by Jeschke’s father was also found in Holman’s possession.

Horsman said a report about the earrings was never turned over to Hemme’s defense attorney. Three FBI reports on forensic evidence were also not disclosed. Information about Holman’s criminal conduct in the months before and after the murder was also withheld.

“The nondisclosure of that evidence resulted in a trial that was fundamentally unfair, resulting in a verdict unworthy of confidence,” Horsman’s order said.

Hemme joins a growing list of people in the Kansas City region who were wrongfully convicted and freed, including Ricky Kidd, Keith Carnes, Lamonte McIntyre and Olin “Pete” Coones. Kevin Strickland , who was released in 2021 also spent 43 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.