Shocking revelations have seen a woman falsely accused of murder finally freed after four decades, with a former police officer now named as the most likely suspect.
Sandra Hemme was sentenced to a life behind bars for the 1980 murder of Patricia Jeschke, a library worker in St Joseph, Missouri.
The incorrect conviction came following Hemme giving a false confession while she was a patient at a psychiatric hospital.
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However, that conviction was overturned on Friday (15 June) after Hemme spent more than four decades in prison for a crime she did not commit.
Livingston county circuit judge Ryan Horsman ruled that 'evidence directly' ties the killing of Jeschke to a police officer who was later sent to prison for another crime and has since passed away.
Those closest to Hemme have never given up hope she would be released, with the Innocence Project – a criminal justice nonprofit – helping her case.
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On their website, they state: "Sandra 'Sandy' Hemme has spent more than four decades in prison for a crime that evidence supports she did not commit, making her the longest-known wrongly incarcerated woman in the US.
"Although Ms. Hemme, now 63, has spent the majority of her life wrongfully imprisoned, she has never given up hope that her name will one day be cleared."
In February 2023, Ms. Hemme’s attorneys filed a petition for a release based on new evidence.
In a 147-page petition, attorneys argued that authorities ignored Hemme’s 'wildly contradictory' and 'factually impossible' statements while she was in a psychiatric hospital.
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The then 20-year-old was receiving treatment for auditory hallucinations, de-realization and drug use when police tried to send her down, her attorneys said.
While being questioned by police, Hemme's attorneys 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'.
Michael Holman, then a 22-year-old police officer, was also in the frame for the murder.
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His truck was spotted near the crime scene, and a pair of earrings identified by Jeschke’s father were also found on the cop.
Holman is now considered to be the individual who killed Jeschke. He died in 2015.
So, in his ruling on Friday, Horsman wrote that 'no evidence whatsoever outside of Ms Hemme’s unreliable statements connects her to the crime'.
"This court finds that the evidence directly ties Holman to this crime and murder scene," the judge added.
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Hemme must now be released within 30 days unless prosecutors decide to re-try her, the judge said.
Callum Jones