wrongful conviction

Freed after more than 43 years in prison, Sandra Hemme’s story illustrates how difficult it is to correct errors when the criminal justice system gets it wrong. In Missouri, the challenge is complicated by an attorney general's office that opposes innocence claims regardless of the evidence.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is asking the state Supreme Court to let him appeal the release of Christopher Dunn, who spent more than 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. At the same time, Bailey opposes a bill that would expand who is able to pursue innocence claims.

Sandra Hemme spent 43 years in a Missouri prison for a murder she did not commit. But her case should help others wrongfully convicted win their freedom, because the judges directly addressed the issue of false confessions.

Sandra Hemme spent 43 years in a Missouri prison for a murder she did not commit. Some estimates suggest that a false confession played a role in almost a third of wrongful murder convictions.

Missouri has little support available for exonerees after they're freed, despite the difficulties of obtaining housing, health care or a job. Senate Bill 36 would allow exonerated defendants to claim damages of $179 per day of wrongful imprisonment with a yearly cap of $65,000.

Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree announced Wednesday that he will not seek retrials for Cedric Warren and Dominic Moore because they didn’t receive a fair trial for a 2009 double homicide. Dupree said a former prosecutor was to blame for the wrongful conviction.

In June, a judge overturned Hemme’s conviction for the 1980 murder of a librarian from St. Joseph, Missouri. After five months of legal battles, the same judge signed the final order granting her freedom.

For the first time in more than four decades, Sandra Hemme may get to spend Thanksgiving with her family — not in prison. Hemme was wrongly convicted of murdering a St. Joseph librarian in 1980, but a Missouri judge overturned the charges this year.

The Missouri Court of Appeals Tuesday rejected all arguments from state Attorney General Andrew Bailey to return Hemme to prison. Hemme served 43 years in prison — more time than any other wrongly convicted woman in the U.S.

The Missouri Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Wednesday in the innocence case of Sandra Hemme, who served 43 years in prison — more time than any other wrongly convicted woman in the U.S.

At the age of 18, Chris Dunn was sentenced to life in prison for a crime he says he didn't commit. It would take two key witnesses recanting and a new state law to free him — even as the Missouri Attorney General worked to keep him behind bars.

Marcellus Williams remains on death row in Missouri after 20 years, despite evidence that he is innocent in the 1998 murder of a St. Louis woman. But a plea deal that would have saved him from the death penalty, in exchange for life in prison, was blocked by the Missouri Supreme Court.