There was only one place Sandra Hemme was going to go the moment she stepped foot outside the Chillicothe Correctional Center for the first time in 43 years: the hospital.
Hemme’s father is dying of acute kidney failure, according to Hemme’s attorney, Sean O’Brien.
“Except for sleeping, she has spent almost all of her time at his bedside since she’s been released,” O’Brien said.
In June, Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Ryan Horsman overturned Hemme’s conviction for a 1980 murder.
But it wasn't until this Friday that 64-year-old Hemme was finally freed on bond after a weeks-long court battle over her release.
An overturned conviction
Hemme was convicted of murder in the 1980 killing of Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Last month, Horsman declared Hemme innocent after her attorneys proved the prosecution withheld evidence and she received poor legal representation. They also provided evidence the murder had actually been committed by a disgraced and now-dead St. Joseph police officer.
"This court finds that the totality of the evidence supports a finding of actual innocence," Horsman concluded. Hemme was, he ruled, “the victim of a manifest injustice.”
But Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey appealed that ruling to the state Court of Appeals.
And for nearly a month, Bailey fought to keep Hemme locked up.
A fight to keep Hemme in prison
Bailey took his fight to keep Hemme in prison all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court. And even after the high court ordered her release, the prison refused to release Hemme on orders of the attorney general. She was released only after Horsman threatened Bailey with contempt of court.
“There is no justification for Respondent’s (Bailey) disobedience of this Court’s Order,” O’Brien said in court papers.
He also stressed the dire situation of Hemme’s dad.
“Ms. Hemme’s father lies dying of acute kidney failure,” O’Brien argued. Hemme and her family were being irreparably harmed by keeping her in prison because she was “about to lose the ability to say goodbye to her father,” the court filing said.
Appealing these sorts of rulings has been standard practice for 30 years by the attorney general’s office, O’Brien said. But some legal experts say the effort to keep her incarcerated was extreme.
Washington School of Law professor Peter Joy told CBS News it was “a shock to the conscience of any decent human being,”
Next steps
Hemme’s next court date is Oct. 9, when the Missouri Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments.
In the meantime, Hemme is living with family about an hour from the Chillicothe prison where she has spent most of the past four decades.
Copyright 2024 KCUR 89.3
