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.”
“She’s going to need help,” he said, noting she won’t be eligible for social security because she has been incarcerated for so long.
FFS she’s owed a hell of a lot more than social security! 😠 The court should also order the state to pay her a huge damages payment that will afford a comfortable income for the rest of her life.
I’m against the massive payouts over changed convictions. It makes it less likely states will play ball with not fighting overturned convictions (except this missouri d-bag) and its oftentimes not the states fault they were wrongly convicted. Give her like $150k, and then like $50k a year from then on.
Was she arrested by a state trooper? Was she accused by a state prosecutor? Was she sent to prison by a state judge? Why is it not the states fault?
Not to mention, damages paid by governments don’t just come out of thin air. Contemporary taxpayers shoulder the burden, in some way, for the misdeeds of previous generations. An unfortunate reality. At the same time, I wholeheartedly agree that this woman deserves some form of additional restitution. It just becomes very tricky who actually bears that cost.
Taxpayers also pay the money for her being wrongfully imprisoned. Taxpayers also suffer from her not being able to contribute to the economy. Taxpayers pay the salary of the shitheads that framed and convicted her.
That is how a state works. Of all these things her being compensated for wrongful imprisonment is the least problematic to pay for.
My point is more about public servants, such as the justice system, government officials, etc. not doing a good job. Everyone loses in this case. I’m not at all against government spending. It’s just really unfortunate that (1) this woman’s life was ruined and (2) we as a society also have to foot that bill.
Not to mention the taxpayers are who voted for the police chief and the judges who wrongfully incarcerated this woman
This is such a braindead argument. All the money the government spends is taxpayer money. Do you think that the government should never have to pay for any damages it does?
Not at all. I agree that’s what tax funds are for and ought to be spent when necessary. I’m just making a more nuanced point that it’s unfortunate that government officials and the justice system not doing a proper job has led to two adverse outcomes.
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
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?
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.
That’s my take on the death penalty.
I have a problem with the state executing its citizens to exert control through violence.
I don’t have a problem with those inside of our government being killed as a show of good faith to the citizens when someone decides to use the power given to them by the government to violate other people’s rights. If we’re going to fight wars to protect our society from foreign enemies, we should be willing to use the same level of force to protect it from domestic enemies.
No ordinary citizen, including most government employees, should ever be subject to capital punishment, no matter how heinous their crimes. Police, military, politicians, and other government officials on the other hand should face that possibility when they abuse their power and violate the rights of citizens. The government should show exactly how little tolerance there is to the government being misused for criminal ends.
Of course, this is all too late. American society will never work this way.
Bailey, who was appointed attorney general after Eric Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022, has a history of opposing overturning convictions, even when local prosecutors cite evidence of actual innocence.
This guy literally wants innocent people to be in prison.
And I bet he’ll win the election.
Under current law, only someone shown to be innocent by means of a DNA test is eligible for compensation after being released. The law allows $36,500 a year for the same number of years the person was wrongly incarcerated.
The vetoed bill would have increased the payment to $65,000 a year and expanded it to include people freed by the conviction review process created in a 2021 law.
The conviction review process:
In order for elected prosecutors to have a pathway to correct wrongful convictions, it was up to the state legislature to pass a law
If this innocent person was eligible for payments in Missouri, which she is not, and if the bill was passed to increase payments, then she may have received a maximum of $2.8m. However, it’d be paid as an annuity of $65k per year. If she dies her family would get nothing more. And, the payments are in lieu of a civil suit.
She’ll have to sue if she wants justice. I hope she does. I’ve been to prison. I think she deserves to be comfortable for the rest of her life.
What did make you enter a prison voluntarily?
Why do you believe it was voluntary?
I didn’t. It was a stab in the dark. 50/50 chance.
In the US most of them want out by time the weather gets warm. They spend time in county jails for smaller crimes of misdemeanors. Very few individuals choose state prison for greater crimes of felonies.
How’s it setup in Canada? Same thing different words?
Nope.
Local PD jails are only holding cells for overnight/weekend stays to handle court appearances or until bail can be set. Almost every prisoner then ends up in a provincial correction jail (if bail is not met or offered) until their court case is completed. Sentences of less that 2 years (aka deuce less) are served in the same correction centres, more than 2 years is in a federal penitentiary.
Canada has local facilities and provincial correction facilities performing the tasks of our county jails.
The US also has federal penetentiaries for the worst crimes with the longest sentences. But, it’d be rare for a relatively short two year sentence to be served in one.
The US system seems more distributed. Each state and county can, to a great extent, decide the conditions under which prisoners live. This is one reason it’s very difficult to reform our prison system.
All prisoners suffer. Could you please tell me more about how the system is constructed and the nature of suffering in Canada? Are conditions more consistent? Is there access to actual support in rehabilitation?
Our institutions still have ongoing issues with solitary confinement, lack of mental health supports and lack of training/retraining opportunities.
Conditions tend to be better than what American jails sound like (a guess, as I can only go on what I read about them).
I’m unsure what you mean about how the system is constructed, ie: judicial, penal, etc
Wow what a piece of shit Andrew Bailey is!
Time for charges against the shitbag AG who tried to block her freedom.
There is no money what can redeem that shit. It doesn’t matter how much money she get paid for that.
…but to be clear, she deserves a fuckton of money anyway.
Money isn’t justice, the judge and the jury who prosecuted her should be imprisoned at least for 43 years for that.
yeah but still, she shouldn’t have to work to make a living now, she should just be able to enjoy life from now on
It’s not justice, but she definitely deserves it to make her life easier. Wtf is wrong with you
I’m not saying she shouldn’t be paid, what I’m saying it’s giving someone money for that isn’t justice, that’s it. You can’t fix everything just paying money.
True. But we can’t give her back that time. Money is the next best thing.
But you can try not coming across as arguing against something that should absolutely happen just because you don’t think it goes far enough by itself…
this is so suspicious. it needs more deep digging and she should be given money out of the pockets of those that kept her in.
I don’t care where she gets the money as long as she gets it. 10 million a year.
isn’t even trying to keep an innocent behind bars already a type of kidnapping attempt and every second of delay that it caused an actual act of kidnapping?
During a court hearing Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman said that if Hemme wasn’t released within hours, Bailey himself would have to appear in court Tuesday morning. He threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt.
Props to the judge tho, 'cause threatening Bailey with contempt charges could have landed him in jail (for a bit anyways).
“See my big gavel here? If you don’t release her immediately this gavel will crash into your thick, stupid skull … with force.”
Honestly, there should still be an inquest or something where the guy is brought in and must explain wtf he was thinking or trying to accomplish by fighting her release. And if he doesn’t have a satisfying answer, remove him from the position.
And no, I wouldn’t consider “trying to save the state taxpayers from a lawsuit for the false imprisonment” a satisfying answer.
In fact, if he can’t defend a position such that it’s reasonable to believe she was actually guilty, there should be criminal charges against him and anyone who worked with him to stop or stall the release. And I’d say this should be the case for any prosecution where it becomes just about winning a case rather than demonstrating the truth in court.
Now this person I want on the Supreme Court
