A 63-year-old Missouri woman has been released after serving 43 years in jail for a crime she did not commit….CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>

Sandra “Sandy” Hemme was sentenced to almost 40 years in prison for murder.

According to The Guardian, a foreign news media, Hemme was convicted in 1985 based on damning remarks she made while in a mental facility.

However, a court has since determined that there is “clear and convincing” evidence that she was not guilty of the crime.

Hemme, now 63, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 1980 murder of Patricia Jeschke, a library clerk in St Joseph, Missouri, after making self-incriminating comments to police while a mental patient.

Livingston County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman concluded on Friday that “evidence directly” links Jeschke’s murder to a local police officer who was eventually imprisoned for another crime and died.

The judge ruled that Hemme, who has spent the previous 43 years in prison, must be released within 30 days unless prosecutors decide to retry her.

The judge’s ruling came during a January hearing in which Hemme’s defence team presented evidence tying the murder to Michael Holman, a former local police officer who has since died.

Hemme’s conviction was the longest-known false conviction for a woman in American history.

Her legal team, which included the Innocence Project, claimed that authorities overlooked Hemme’s inconsistent claims and neglected to reveal information that might have aided her defence.

Her attorneys in a statement said, “We are grateful to the Court for acknowledging the grave injustice Ms Hemme has endured for more than four decades.”

Hemme first pled guilty to capital murder to avoid the death penalty, but her conviction was overturned on appeal.

She was retried in 1985, with the sole evidence against her being a contradictory and factually impossible “confession” she produced while in a mental facility.

In a 147-page appeal, her attorneys alleged that authorities had overlooked these contradictions.

At the time, Hemme, 20, was being treated for auditory hallucinations, de-realization, and drug usage. Her counsel stated that she had a history of inpatient psychiatric care, having spent most of her life in treatment from the age of twelve.

Source: Sunnewsonline

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