CHILLICOTHE, MO – A Missouri woman who spent 43 years in prison after implicating herself in a 1980 murder while she was a psychiatric patient has been released, despite recent efforts by the state’s attorney general to keep her incarcerated.
Sandra Hemme, 64, was the longest-serving wrongly imprisoned woman in the United States, according to her legal team at the Innocence Project. She was convicted of killing Patricia Jeschke, a 31-year-old library worker, over four decades ago. 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 the Chillicothe Correctional Center on Friday, greeted by family and supporters at a nearby park. She embraced her sister, daughter, and granddaughter, sharing a heartfelt moment with her granddaughter, who she had only seen in pictures as a baby.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, had opposed Hemme’s release, arguing she posed a safety risk due to prior violent incidents in prison. Hemme had received additional sentences in the past for attacking a prison worker and offering to commit violence, which Bailey contended she should now serve.
During a court hearing on Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt if Hemme was not released promptly, even suggesting Bailey himself might need to appear in court. The judge criticized Bailey’s office for instructing prison officials to ignore the release order.
Sean O’Brien, Hemme’s attorney, condemned the delay in her release, stating it was far too challenging to free an innocent person. He highlighted the flawed process that led to Hemme’s conviction, including her heavily sedated state during initial police questioning and the suppression of evidence pointing to then-police officer Michael Holman.
Holman, who died in 2015, had attempted to use Jeschke’s credit card on the day her body was discovered. Despite mounting evidence against him, the investigation into Holman was abruptly terminated, and Hemme was coerced into a guilty plea to avoid the death penalty.
Hemme’s conviction was later overturned on appeal, but she was reconvicted in a one-day trial in 1985, where jurors were not informed about the coercive nature of her interrogations. Her legal team continues to criticize the systemic failures that led to her wrongful imprisonment.