With no fanfare, Sandra Hemme, the Missouri woman who spent 43 years in prison for a murder she did not commit, is finally free of the legal system (article available here).
The Livingston County Circuit Court that found Hemme innocent last summer, signed the final order on Tuesday granting her freedom. “Sandra Hemme is hereby permanently and unconditionally discharged from custody,” the judge wrote. It means, for the first time since she was 21, Hemme is totally free.
Hemme had been the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S.
In 1985, Hemme was convicted of murder for the 1980 killing of Patricia Jeschke, in St. Joseph, Missouri. The court declared Hemme innocent on June 14, 2024, after her attorneys proved the prosecution withheld evidence and she received poor legal representation. Her attorneys also provided evidence the murder had actually been committed by a disgraced and now-dead St. Joseph police officer.