An American woman spent 43 years behind bars for a crime she did not commit. This Friday, June 14, 2024, the Missouri justice system finally overturned her sentence, the 63-year-old woman was released.
Because of a serious miscarriage of justice, a 63-year-old American woman spent 43 years in prison before the courts reversed their decision this Friday. Sandra Hemme, the defendant, was convicted in 1980 of intentional homicide, even though the evidence gathered in this case incriminated a corrupt police officer, reports AP News.
A very long sentence
Patricia Jeschke, the victim, a 31-year-old librarian, was killed. For this murder, Sandra Hemme was convicted by the American courts, “longest unjustified prison sentence received by a woman in US history”relates the Huffington Post.
Sandra Hemme, however, confessed to the crime, but under pressure and the threat of the death penalty, say her lawyers.
A police officer suspected
Lawyers from the Innocence Project, a New York NGO, which aims to prove the innocence of people wrongly convicted, looked into this extraordinary case. The team first denounced the conditions “illegitimate” interrogation of Sandra Hemme. Note that at that time, she was a psychiatric patient. She had leather handcuffs and was sedated, so she “couldn’t hold his head up or articulate something other than monosyllabic responses”.
In the petition launched to exonerate her, it is also noted that evidence incriminating a police officer who attempted to use the victim’s credit card had been suppressed. The man in question is Michael Holman.
It is then that justice begins to ask questions. “HASno evidence, aside from Ms. Hemme’s unreliable statements, links her to the crime. However, this Court finds that the evidence directly links Holman to this crime and the crime scene.”he indicated.
It was then that the evidence establishing the police officer’s guilt multiplied: unconfirmed alibi, the victim’s jewelry found at his home, a similar van seen near the crime scene… Despite the evidence, the investigation was finally closed. .
If after 43 years in prison, the release of Sandra Hemme was pronounced, the guilty police officer Michael Holman died in 2015, underlines the American press.
