• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Grandmother who served 43 years in prison is finally freed after murder conviction is overturned

Home> News> Crime

Updated 17:45 20 Jul 2024 GMT+1Published 17:44 20 Jul 2024 GMT+1

Grandmother who served 43 years in prison is finally freed after murder conviction is overturned

The judge had originally ruled that Sandra Hemme's attorneys had established 'clear and convincing evidence' of 'actual innocence'

Kit Roberts

Kit Roberts

A woman who spent 43 years in jail has been released following the overturning of her murder conviction.

Sandra Hemme, 64, was released from jail in Chillicothe on Friday (July 19) after Missouri’s attorney general fought for a month against her release in court.

Hemme was originally sentenced to life behind bars for the fatal stabbing of library worker Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1980.

Advert

A judge had previously ruled that Hemme's attorneys had shown 'clear and convincing evidence' of 'actual innocence' and overturned her conviction, as per NBC News.

However, the Missouri Attorney General attempted to block her release after a lawyer from the office called the prison and argued that two unrelated prison sentences - coming to 12 years - should keep her behind bars, as per The Independent.

According to NBC News, Judge Ryan Horsman said that if she wasn't released by a certain time, then he wanted Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey to appear in court on Tuesday as he threatened to hold the attorney's office in contempt of court.

Advert

The Missouri Corrections Department then announced that Hemme would be released before 6.pm.

Judge Horsman also told off Bailey's office for calling the prison, adding: "I would suggest you never do that.

"To call someone and tell them to disregard a court order is wrong.”

Sandra Hemme has had her murder conviction overturned. (Innocence Project)
Sandra Hemme has had her murder conviction overturned. (Innocence Project)

Advert

After a detailed review of the case, Horsman had concluded in June that Hemme had been heavily sedated and was in a 'malleable mental state' when she was questioned by investigators about the killing in a psychiatric hospital.

Her attorneys also said that 'at some points, she was so heavily medicated that she was unable to even hold her head up and was restrained and strapped to a chair'.

Sandra's legal team at the Innocence Project said that she was the 'longest-known wrongly incarcerated woman in the US'.

Her attorney Sean O’Brien also highlighted the huge struggle that the team had to secure her release.

Advert

He said: “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.

“It shouldn’t be this hard to free an innocent person.”

Her legal team called her the 'longest-known wrongly incarcerated woman in the US' (Innocence Project)
Her legal team called her the 'longest-known wrongly incarcerated woman in the US' (Innocence Project)

The attorney had previously spoken of how delays to Sandra's release had caused 'irreparable harm and emotional distress' to Sandra's family.

Advert

In his report about the case, Horsman called Sandra 'the victim of a manifest injustice'.

She was reunited with her daughter, granddaughter and sister in a nearby park, where she hugged them.

Two of Hemme's relatives were in court on Friday, but did not talk after the hearing.

Hemme's father has been moved to pallative care after being hospitalized with kidney failure, and her attorney says that 'he wants only to see his daughter free in his lifetime, just as Ms. Hemme wants nothing more than to be at her father’s bedside at this time'.

Advert

O'Brien said that Hemme would be seeing her father after her release, adding: "This has been a long time coming."

UNILAD has contacted the Missouri Attorney General Office for comment.

Featured Image Credit: Innocence Project

Topics: News, US News, Crime, Court

Kit Roberts
Kit Roberts

Kit joined UNILAD in 2023 as a community journalist. They have previously worked for StokeonTrentLive, the Daily Mirror, and the Daily Star.

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

an hour ago
14 hours ago
15 hours ago
  • an hour ago

    Trump has blunt reaction to Epstein questions in first public appearance since chronic vein condition was revealed

    The president was seen in public for the first time on Friday since his chronic vein condition was revealed

    News
  • 14 hours ago

    America’s ‘harshest’ death row prison gives shocking new privileges to killer inmates

    One death row inmate has said the new scheme has given him hope

    News
  • 15 hours ago

    Andy Byron's company speaks out after married CEO was caught with employee on Coldplay kiss cam

    The viral video has got people all over the internet talking

    News
  • 15 hours ago

    Woman diagnosed with brain tumor after dismissing symptoms as a cold that wouldn’t go away

    Amanda Hyne, from Connecticut, initially thought her symptoms were down to 'mom stress'

    News
  • That '70s Show star Danny Masterson appeals rape conviction after being sentenced to 30 years in prison
  • Felon who attacked judge during sentencing receives prison sentence after being charged with attempted murder
  • Woman who killed pop star Selena learns fate in prison 30 years after murder
  • Innocent man who spent 30 years in prison for murder he didn't commit notices one thing about people after being released