Woman Freed After Serving 43 Years In Prison, Conviction Overturned

Missouri authorities released a woman who served 43 years of a life sentence Friday despite the opposition of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey of Missouri, according to multiple reports.

Sandra Hemme was convicted of murdering Patricia Jeschke, a library worker from St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1981 and sentenced to life in prison, the Associated Press reported. The Missouri Supreme Court cleared the way for Hemme’s release Thursday, upholding rulings from lower courts that found Hemme’s confessions to the crime were “unreliable and false,” according to the New York Times.

Livingston County Presiding Judge Ryan Horsman overturned Hemme’s verdict in a June 14 decision, but Bailey’s office argued that Hemme needed to serve 12 years for a pair of assault convictions from her time in prison, one against a fellow inmate and another against a correctional officer, the AP reported.

“Exculpatory evidence was not disclosed to Ms. Hemme that was material to the outcome of her case and that she can show cause-and-prejudice for not having discovered her Brady v. Maryland claim earlier,” Horsman wrote. “Ms. Hemme has thus established a gateway claim of innocence that overcomes any alleged procedural default related to the ineffective assistance of counsel she received at her trial. Ms. Hemme has also established evidence supporting a freestanding claim of actual innocence.”

“She is the victim of a manifest injustice,” Horsman wrote.

Bailey also reportedly ordered staff at the prison Hemme was held not to release her, but the staff did after Horman threatened to hold Bailey in contempt, according to the AP.

A statement from the Innocence Project, which represented Hemme, claimed the St. Joseph Police “hid evidence implicating one of their own,” saying a police officer with the department had Jeschke’s earrings and that his truck was near the murder victim’s home.

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