On Thursday, Sandra Hemme plans to have Thanksgiving dinner with her family.
Unremarkable for many, but for Hemme — who spent four decades in a Missouri prison for a murder she did not commit — it’s anything but.
Monday was the deadline for Buchanan County Prosecutor Michelle Davidson to decide whether to retry Hemme after a judge found her innocent of the 1980 murder of Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph, Missouri.
As of Tuesday morning, no charges had been filed.
Hemme’s legal team filed a motion Tuesday with the court that found her innocent for her “unconditional release,” which is the final step in her long legal process. Hemme spent more time in prison than any other wrongfully convicted woman in the U.S.
“Ms. Hemme and her family are looking forward to spending Thanksgiving together for the first time in forty-four years,” according to the motion.
A drawn-out campaign for innocence
Tuesday’s legal filing is one of the final steps of a years-long battle over Hemme’s freedom.
In June, Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Ryan Horsman ruled that Hemme was “the victim of a manifest injustice” after a three-day hearing.
The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in October, and Davidson decided to take no action and let the deadline for retrying Hemme quietly pass. An email to the prosecutor’s office was not returned.
Tuesday’s motion says Hemme has complied with all conditions of her release. “She is living with her sister and brother-in-law (and) that she receives and benefits from treatment provided by a community-based psychiatrist,” according to the motion.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who fought Hemme’s release on bond all the way to the state Supreme Court, now has five days to respond.
Just getting to this point was an odyssey for Hemme.
In June, her lawyers showed before a Missouri circuit court that prosecutors withheld evidence during her 1985 trial. That includes FBI lab reports that could have cleared Hemme.
They also proved that she was heavily sedated during her multiple interrogations by St. Joseph police and that police ignored evidence suggesting Michael Holman — a fellow St. Joseph cop — committed the murder. Holman is now dead.
Hemme’s conviction was overturned on June 14. “The totality of the evidence supports a finding of actual innocence,” Horsman wrote.
But the state of Missouri appealed Horsman’s ruling. At one point, Bailey ordered the warden at Chillicothe Correctional Center to ignore the judge’s order to release her and keep Hemme locked up.
Bailey lost that fight only after Horsman threatened to take Bailey to court if he continued to block Hemme’s release. She was allowed to leave prison on her own recognizance and live with her sister about an hour from Chillicothe.
Last month, the Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City heard oral arguments in Hemme’s case, and just 14 days later — fast in the appeals court world — upheld the innocence ruling.
