A Missouri woman who spent 43 years behind bars for a 1980 murder she did not commit has been freed from prison despite attempts by Missouri’s attorney general to keep her behind bars.
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 from prison despite attempts in the last month by Missouri’s attorney general to keep her behind bars. Sandra Hemme, 64, was the longest held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to her legal team at the Innocence Project, after she was found guilty of killing 31-year-old library worker Patricia Jeschke more than 40 years ago.
Hemme left a prison in Chillicothe on Friday and was embraced by family and supporters at a nearby park. She hugged her sister, daughter and granddaughter. 'You were just a baby when your mom sent me a picture of you,' a smiling Hemme said to her granddaughter. 'You looked just like your mamma when you were little and you still look like her.' Her granddaughter laughed and said, 'I get that a lot.
The judge wrote that 'no evidence whatsoever outside of Ms. Hemme's unreliable statements connects her to the crime.' 'In contrast, this Court finds that the evidence directly ties Holman to this crime and murder scene,' the judge wrote. On Nov. 13, 1980, Jeschke missed work and her concerned mother climbed through a window in her apartment and discovered her nude body on the floor in a pool of blood.
But the judge initially rejected her guilty plea because she failed to share enough details about the incident. Her attorney told her that her chance to avoid being sentenced to death relied on having the judge to accept her guilty plea. Following a recess and some coaching, she gave the judge more details.
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