Mo. woman freed from prison 43 years after she was wrongfully convicted of murder

CHILLICOTHE, Mo. (TCN) -- A woman who has been behind bars for over 40 years for a crime she did not commit was released from prison a month after a judge overturned her conviction.

The Innocence Project confirmed Friday, July 19, that Sandra Hemme was freed from prison and reunited with her family after 43 years of incarceration. She was the longest-serving wrongfully convicted female inmate in the United States.

According to The Associated Press, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sought to keep Hemme incarcerated and even reportedly called the warden at Chillicothe Correctional Center not to release her. Judge Ryan Horsman, however, said he would hold Bailey in contempt if she was not freed.

He said, "I would suggest you never do that. To call someone and tell them to disregard a court order is wrong."

Hemme’s case was overturned June 14 when Horsman wrote in his decision that prosecutors did not share evidence with Hemme that "was material to the outcome of her case." In doing so, Hemme "thus established a gateway claim of innocence," as well as "evidence supporting a freestanding claim of actual innocence."

Hemme was charged with and convicted of killing Patricia Jeschke. Jeschke was last seen Nov. 12, 1980, leaving her job at the St. Joseph Public Library. When she failed to show up the next day, Jeschke’s boss called her mother, who went to her apartment and found Jeschke "lying in a pool of blood on the bedroom floor." Her hands were tied behind her back with a telephone cord and a pillow was covering her face.

Jeschke also had a ligature around her neck and blunt force trauma injuries to her head.

Neighbors and witnesses saw St. Joseph Police Department Office Michael Holman’s car near the scene. Holman, however, said he was in the area because he had a relationship with a woman who lived close by. Jeschke’s credit card was found in Holman’s possession, though he claimed he found her purse in a ditch. Holman reportedly used her credit card on Dec. 19.

A detective interviewed Hemme on Nov. 28, 1980, at a state psychiatric hospital. Hemme was "not totally cognizant of what was going on" and had trouble focusing. The court opinion says records showed Hemme "had been injected with both antipsychotic medication and a powerful sedative shortly before she was questioned, and that she was experiencing painful muscle spasms due to an adverse reaction to the antipsychotic medication."

The detective showed Hemme a photo of Jeschke, and she said she "may have gotten high with her and caught a ride with her in a small brown car" when she left the hospital on Nov. 12.

Hemme changed her story several times when speaking with detectives. She pleaded guilty April 10, 1981, to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

Horsman said Hemme’s "psychiatric condition was fertile ground for her to also internalize, or come to believe, the apparently false narratives she told."

The judge argued there was evidence that "directly ties Holman to this crime and murder scene." The FBI reportedly concluded Hemme did not kill Jeschke, yet detectives "did not fully investigate Holman."

Holman died in 2015.

Hemme’s legal team with the Innocence Project said in a statement following her release, "We are grateful that Ms. Hemme is now, finally, reunited with her family after 43 years. She has spent more than four decades wrongfully incarcerated for a crime she had nothing to do with. Tonight, she is surrounded by her loved ones, where she should have been all along. We will continue to fight until her name is cleared."