A woman whose murder conviction was overturned after she served 43 years in prison is now free, despite objections from Missouri’s attorney general.

A woman whose murder conviction was overturned after she served 43 years of a life sentence was released Friday, despite attempts in the last month by Missouri’s attorney general to keep her behind bars.

Sandra Hemme, 64, left a prison in Chillicothe, hours after a judge threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt if they continued to fight against her release. She reunited with her family at a nearby park, where she hugged her sister, daughter and granddaughter.

Hemme had been the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to her legal team at the Innocence Project. The judge originally ruled on June 14 that Hemme’s attorneys had established “clear and convincing evidence” of “actual innocence” and he overturned her conviction. But Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey fought her release in the courts.

“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,” her attorney Sean O’Brien said. “It shouldn’t be this hard to free an innocent person.”

  • girlfreddyOP
    942·
    5 months ago

    The St. Joseph Police Department, meanwhile, ignored evidence pointing to Michael Holman — a fellow officer, who died in 2015 — and the prosecution wasn’t told about FBI results that could have cleared Hemme, so it was never disclosed before her trials, the judge found.

    Evidence presented to Horsman showed that Holman’s pickup truck was seen outside Jeschke’s apartment, that he tried to use her credit card, and that her earrings were found in his home.

    So a cop was suspected in the murder but the PD framed an innocent woman?? Jfc.

    ACAB ACAB ACAB

    • NobodyElse@sh.itjust.works
      25·
      5 months ago

      Thank you for beating me to this. I had just copied that section to post this exact same thing.

      How many other people are in prison to cover up the crimes of the police?

    • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
      41·
      5 months ago

      I’m generally opposed to capital punishment. But in cases where cops or prosecutors are involded in committing a murder or covering it up, there should be an exception.