The young woman found guilty of murdering Patricia Jeschke in 1980 was sentenced to life imprisonment. On June 14, a judge decided to reverse the court decision. For good reason, it would have been used to cover a police officer…
Confessions “extremely contradictory, uncorroborated and factually impossible. » Despite everything, the judge found Sandra Hemme guilty of the murder of Patricia Jeschke in 1980. But 43 years after the judgment, a Missouri magistrate decided to repair this “manifest injustice”.
Patricia Jeschke was discovered dead in her home, half undressed. If nothing linked her to Sandra Hemme, the young woman was still arrested. The only element used by the investigators would be that the suspect suffers from psychological disorders and states contradictory facts.
Ignoring real evidence
No testimony, nor any motive, confirms the intuition of the police who question him anyway. After several hours of hearing, the 21-year-old woman broke down and confessed to the murder. She is then taken to court where the judge, who only has her confessions, sentences her to life imprisonment… after a day of trial.
The organization The Innocence Project, which fights to restore judicial errors, has supported Sandra Hemme for several years. In particular, he revealed that evidence concerning a police officer named Michael Holman had been erased. Where the suspect had never been at the crime scene, the official was there on the day of the victim’s death. He also allegedly purchased photo equipment with Patricia Jeschke’s credit card on the same day.
“This is not the first time that the police have wrongly targeted someone”
However, the judge who sentenced the young woman omitted these elements. According to The Innocence Project, it would therefore have been used to exonerate the police officer. “This is not the first time St. Joseph police have targeted and wrongly convicted someone with a mental illness or disability that makes them particularly vulnerable to false confessions »comments the organization.
But on June 14, Judge Ryan Horsman decided to set the record straight by reviewing the case again. He proclaimed the innocence of Sandra Hemme, now 64 years old. County prosecutors now have 30 days to choose whether to release her or retry her.
