Wrongfully convicted Missouri inmate Sandra Hemme was released from prison Friday after a monthlong battle with the state’s attorney general who sought to deny the release on procedural and jurisdictional grounds.
Hemme’s release was the outcome of a sequence of motions and petitions. Following Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman’s decision to overturn Hemme’s conviction based on withheld exculpatory evidence, the AG filed a motion to deny her release. In this motion, the AG argued that the court lacked jurisdiction to issue the order, that they had the right to judicial review, and that Hemme would be a danger to herself and others. The appeal court denied this motion and Judge Horsman again ordered Ms. Hemme to be released. The AG then called the correctional facility holding Ms. Hemme and countermanded the order, preventing her release.
In response, Ms. Hemme’s counsel sought to enforce the order to release. The AG in response, requested that the release order be reconsidered. The AG again put forward, among other procedural arguments, that the court lacked jurisdiction to release Ms. Hemme. They also submitted that she needed to serve her other two-year and ten-year sentences for incidents that occurred while prison. Judge Horsman responded to the reconsideration motion by again ordering Hemme to be released by 6 pm on Friday, and for the AG himself to appear in court next Tuesday if he failed to do so, according to the Associated Press.
Sandra Hemme was wrongfully convicted in 1980 for the stabbing murder of Patricia Jeschke. Judge Ryan Horsman found that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that she was innocent. In addition to this claim of actual innocence, Judge Horsman found that the conviction was based on unreliable self-testimony. Hemme had been involuntarily admitted to the hospital when she gave her first statement to police. Shortly before that first statement, she had been administered antipsychotic and sedative medications and confined by leather wrist restraints. Subsequent questioning led to different statements which changed significantly over the course of police interrogations, eventually leading to her confession. Judge Horsman also found that crucial evidence was withheld by the prosecution, prejudicing her case.
This case was supported by the Innocence Project, an independent nonprofit dedicated to ending overturning wrongful criminal convictions. Founded in 1992 at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, it has now helped free more than 240 people from prison.
