John Jefferson
Sandra Hemme then and now. (Image: Courtesy of the Hemme family via Innocence Project)
A Missouri murder defendant, who spent more than 40 years in prison, may have a new lease on life after a judge on Friday overturned her conviction and decided there’s more evidence pointing at a corrupt cop as the real killer, according to The Kansas City Star.
Now the attorneys for Sandra Hemme, 64, are working to get her out of prison. Prosecutors in Buchanan County had 30 days to decide whether to retry her or dismiss their case that she murdered Patricia Jeschke.
“The only evidence linking Ms. Hemme to the crime was that of her own inconsistent, disproven statements, statements that were taken while she was in psychiatric crisis and physical pain,” Livingston County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman reportedly wrote.
Jurors convicted her Nov. 12, 1980, in a one-day trial. The Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization fighting for those they say were wrongly convicted, took her then-trial attorney to task, saying the lawyer presented no witnesses and that jurors did not hear how officers obtained the only evidence against Hemme.
The defense said that cops took advantage of her by questioning her while she was getting treatment at St. Joseph’s State Hospital for auditory hallucinations, derealization, and drug misuse. Exploiting her mental illness, they coerced her into making false statements.
“Hemme had spent the majority of her life starting at age 12 in inpatient psychiatric treatment,” the Innocence Project said. The lawyers said police interviewed her “under extremely coercive circumstances” for hours while Hemme was in the hospital.
“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,” the Innocence Project said. Throughout the interrogations, her statements conflicted with known facts of the crime, her lawyers said. Her statements varied from initially not mentioning a murder to claiming to have seen a man kill her, to having extrasensory perception and admitting to violently taking Jeschke’s life with a hunting knife.
“I think I stabbed her with it,” Hemme said, the Kansas City Star reported. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
There was no forensic evidence or eyewitness testimony tying her to the crime, just her statements.
Judge Horsman wrote that not only did prosecutors fail to give exculpatory evidence to the defense, but her attorney at trial fell “below professional standards.”
Above all, there’s the matter of the now-dead Michael Holman. The defense said that this St. Joseph police officer was corrupt and admitted to being near Jeschke’s home at the time of the murder. His white pickup truck was parked near the residence. Holman had also tried to use her credit card the day after her murder. Not only that, but authorities found Holman with Jeschke’s wishbone earrings as well as jewelry that had been stolen during a separate home burglary.
His alibi also fell apart because though he claimed he was at a motel with a woman named Mary, the three motel and gas station witnesses told cops they did not remember seeing him or Mary that day. Holman, who served prison in Missouri and Nebraska, died in 2015.
Law&Crime left a message with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office on Sunday.
Jason Kandel contributed to this report.
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