A judge says Sandra Hemme should be free. Why is Missouri AG keeping her in prison?

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The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is fighting to keep a wrongfully convicted woman imprisoned, holding up her release by taking her case all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court.

Sandra “Sandy” Hemme, 64, was declared innocent in a 1980 murder by Livingston County Judge Ryan Horsman last month. On Tuesday, he signed an order granting her release.

But as of Thursday, she remains at Chillicothe Correctional Center, about 90 minutes northeast of Kansas City.

Since Horsman’s June 14 ruling, the Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office has filed a flurry of motions opposing the judge’s findings and supporting Hemme’s continued incarceration. Most of their efforts have been rejected by the circuit court and the Missouri Court of Appeals in recent days and weeks.

It’s unclear why Hemme was not released after Horsman signed the order granting her freedom on Tuesday, but according to court documents, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Clarke called the prison early Wednesday to intervene in the process, even though no stay was in place.

On Wednesday, Hemme’s legal team filed a motion urging Horsman to enforce his release order. The judge did not immediately act on the request.

Later Wednesday, the attorney general’s office took the case to the Missouri Supreme Court, where it remains pending.

The attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Extreme lengths

The office has a longstanding history of fighting innocence cases. However they appear to be going to extreme lengths in Hemme’s case, taking several steps to fight her innocence case and release at various judicial levels and using several different arguments, including alleging that Horsman abused his discretion in finding her innocent.

In recent years and in innocence cases that the AG’s office also opposed, defendants who were wrongfully convicted have been released swiftly.

When a judge found Ricky Kidd innocent in August 2019, he was released the next day. A judge in November 2021 granted Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker’s motion to exonerate Kevin Strickland and he was released later that day. In April 2022, the Missouri Supreme Court set aside the convictions of Keith Carnes and two days later, prosecutors said they would not re-file charges. He was released four days later.

The legal wrangling in Hemme’s case has kept her behind bars, where she has spent the past 43 years. Her prison term marks the longest known wrongful conviction of a woman in U.S. history, according to information from the National Registry of Exonerations.

During an evidentiary hearing in January, Hemme’s legal team presented their case, which points to a St. Joseph police officer as the murderer. The attorney general’s office argued Hemme was guilty.

Horsman’s June order said he found “the evidence establishing Ms. Hemme’s innocence to be clear and convincing.” It directed the local prosecutor to re-try Hemme within 30 days or dismiss the charges. Buchanan County Prosecutor Michelle Davidson could potentially put an end to the legal battles playing out, but has not publicly taken steps to do so.

Davidson has not returned numerous calls or emails sent by The Star.

Murder in St. Joseph

Patricia Jeschke, 31, was found dead on the floor of her St. Joseph apartment in November 1980.

Former St. Joseph police officer Michael Holman was questioned once as a suspect. His truck was seen in the area the day of the murder, his alibi could not be corroborated and he used Jeschke’s credit card, later saying he found it in a purse in a ditch. A pair of gold horseshoe-shaped earrings identified by Jeschke’s father was also found in Holman’s possession.

Holman was never arrested in Jeschke’s death though he was later sent to prison for stealing. He died in 2015.

In Horsman’s June judgment, he wrote that “evidence directly” ties Holman to the murder. The judge also said a report about the earrings was never turned over to Hemme’s defense attorney and three FBI reports on forensic evidence were not disclosed. Information about Holman’s criminal conduct in the months before and after the murder was also withheld.

“The nondisclosure of that evidence resulted in a trial that was fundamentally unfair, resulting in a verdict unworthy of confidence,” Horsman’s order said.

During the police investigation, officers turned their focus to Hemme, who was interviewed several times while she was a psychiatric patient. She was convicted on statements she made to police, though many were contradictory. No forensic evidence linked Hemme to the murder, and she did not have a motive.