Sandra Hemme, a Missouri woman who spent 43 years in prison after incriminating herself in a 1980 murder while she was a psychiatric patient, has been freed despite efforts by Missouri’s attorney general to keep her incarcerated, told CBS News.
Hemme, 64, was found guilty of killing 31-year-old Patricia Jeschke, a library worker. She was the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman in the U.S., according to her legal team at the Innocence Project. However, a judge overturned her conviction last month, acknowledging evidence of her innocence and identifying a former police officer as the likely perpetrator.
Hemme walked out of a prison in Chillicothe on Friday and was greeted by her family and supporters at a nearby park. She embraced her sister, daughter, and granddaughter. “You were just a baby when your mom sent me a picture of you,” Hemme said to her granddaughter with a smile. “You looked just like your mamma when you were little and you still look like her.” Her granddaughter laughed, responding, “I get that a lot.”
Hemme chose not to speak to reporters immediately following her release. Her release came despite Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, arguing that Hemme posed a safety risk to herself and others. Bailey pointed to Hemme’s 10-year sentence in 1996 for attacking a prison worker with a razor blade and a two-year sentence in 1984 for “offering to commit violence,” contending that she should serve those sentences now.
During a court hearing on Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt, stating that if Hemme wasn’t released within hours, Bailey himself would need to appear in court on Tuesday morning. The judge also reprimanded Bailey’s office for contacting the prison warden and advising against Hemme’s release after he had ordered her freed on her own recognizance.
Sean O’Brien, Hemme’s attorney, criticized the delay in her release. “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,” O’Brien said. “It shouldn’t be this hard to free an innocent person.”
Hemme’s initial conviction was marred by her mental state and the conditions under which she was questioned. When first interrogated about Jeschke’s death, Hemme was heavily sedated and in wrist restraints, rendering her unable to provide coherent responses. Her lawyers stated in a petition that authorities ignored her “wildly contradictory” statements and suppressed evidence implicating then-police officer Michael Holman, who later died in 2015.
Judge Horsman noted, “No evidence whatsoever outside of Ms. Hemme’s unreliable statements connects her to the crime.” In contrast, the judge pointed out that evidence directly linked Holman to the murder scene.
Hemme had been discharged from St. Joseph’s Hospital a day before Jeschke’s body was discovered. She arrived at her parents’ house later that night after hitchhiking over 100 miles. Police became suspicious and questioned her, extracting statements that changed dramatically with each interrogation, incorporating new details recently uncovered by the police.
Despite her eventual confession, it became clear that Hemme had been coerced. She had initially implicated another individual, Joseph Wabski, who was later proven innocent. After learning of Wabski’s innocence, Hemme confessed to the murder, a confession her attorneys argue was forced.
Sandra Hemme’s release marks the end of a prolonged battle for justice, highlighting significant flaws in the legal system. As she said in a letter to her parents on Christmas Day in 1980, “Even though I’m innocent, they want to put someone away, so they can say the case is solved. Just let it end. I’m tired.”