PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including physical violence, even physical and mental torture.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
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BACKGROUND: Sandra “Sandy” Hemme has spent more than four decades in prison for a crime that evidence supports she did not commit, making her the longest-known wrongly incarcerated woman in the U.S. Although Ms. Hemme, now 63, has spent the majority of her life wrongfully imprisoned, she has never given up hope that her name would one day be cleared. Ms. Hemme was wrongly convicted for the 1980 murder of Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph, Missouri, after police exploited her mental illness and coerced her into making false statements while she was sedated and receiving treatment for hallucinatory episodes. In late February 2023, Ms. Hemme’s attorneys filed a petition for habeas relief in the 43rd Circuit Court of Livingston County based on compelling new evidence of her innocence. This new evidence was withheld by the State for decades and pointed to a police officer as the person who committed the crime. Innocence Project:
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GIST: "An emotional scene unfolded early Friday evening as a woman who was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for more than 43 years finally walked out the doors of a Missouri prison.
Sandra “Sandy” Hemme, 64, was freed after a judge found her innocent in a 1980 murder.
Her prison term marks the longest known wrongful conviction of a woman in U.S. history, according to information from the National Registry of Exonerations.
Around 5:50 p.m., Hemme was released from Chillicothe Correctional Center, about 90 minutes northeast of Kansas City.
She was escorted out with her attorney Sean O’Brien and embraced by several family members near the entrance to the prison.
Hemme’s release had been expected since June 14 when Livingston County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman issued an 118-page order saying she is innocent in the Nov. 12, 1980, murder of Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph.
Buchanan County prosecutors were to decide if they would re-try Hemme or dismiss the charges.
But prosecutor Michelle Davidson did not publicly announce a decision and did not respond to requests for comment about the case.
On July 9, Horsman issued an order for Hemme’s release.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office called the warden and prevented her release, though no stay was in place.
Bailey’s office fought Hemme’s innocence case and then her release, filing motions in Livingston County and with the Western District Court of Appeals and the Missouri Supreme Court.
On Thursday, the high court overruled the attorney general’s motion to stay her release.
During a heated hearing on Friday, Horsman threatened to hold officials with the attorney general’s office in contempt if they further prevented her release.
“I would suggest, counsel, you never do that again,” Horsman told Assistant Attorney General Andrew Clarke regarding their calls to the warden, adding that it was “wrong, absolutely wrong.”
Horsman said if Hemme was not released by 6 p.m. Friday, he expected anyone with the attorney general’s office who was involved as well as Attorney General Andrew Bailey to appear in his courtroom at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Hemme’s legal team noted that her father had been hospitalized and was receiving palliative care as of this week.
She was planning to see him as soon as she was freed.
Minutes after her release, Hemme greeted family members at a nearby park.
Wearing black rimmed eyeglasses, a white T-shirt and gray sweatpants, she smiled and hugged several family members, telling one of the adults that she had not see her since she was a little kid.
Hemme will live with her sister, Joyce Kays, who said she was “just happy.”
O’Brien said the rare occasion was joyous, but that Hemme will need help because she has spent most of her life, from age 20 to 64, in prison. “It was too easy to convict an innocent person and way harder to get her out, even to the point of a court order being ignored,” he said.
KILLER BELIEVED TO BE A COP Officers interviewed Hemme several times while she was a psychiatric patient.
She was convicted on statements she made to police, though many were contradictory.
No forensic evidence linked Hemme to the murder and she did not have a motive.
“Evidence directly” ties a former St. Joseph Police Department officer to the crime, Horsman wrote in the June judgment.
Michael Holman was questioned once as a suspect but never arrested in Jeschke’s death.
He died in 2015. Holman’s truck was seen in the area the day of the murder, his alibi could not be corroborated and he used Jeschke’s credit card after he said he found it in a purse in a ditch.
A pair of gold horseshoe-shaped earrings identified by Jeschke’s father was also found in Holman’s possession.
Horsman said a report about the earrings was never turned over to Hemme’s defense attorney.
Three FBI reports on forensic evidence were also not disclosed. Information about Holman’s criminal conduct in the months before and after the murder was also withheld.
“The nondisclosure of that evidence resulted in a trial that was fundamentally unfair, resulting in a verdict unworthy of confidence,” Horsman’s order said.
Hemme joins a growing list of people in the Kansas City region who were wrongfully convicted and freed, including Ricky Kidd, Keith Carnes, Lamonte McIntyre and Olin “Pete” Coones. Kevin Strickland, who was released in 2021 also spent 43 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.”
The entire story can be read at the link below:
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article289332655.html#storylink=
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Kansas City advocates react to Sandra Hemme's release from a Missouri prison:"Darryl Burton and Lamonte McIntyre served more than two decades each in prison before they were exonerated. Hemme's lawyer serves on the board of the Miracle of Innocence Project, a non-profit the men founded after they were released from prisons. "She's been gone 43 years," Burton said. "That's almost Lamonte and my time combined. We together did 47 years." KSHB 41 has highlighted both of their cases. Burton was exonerated in 2008. McIntyre was exonerated in 2017. "My reaction is being free all over again," McIntyre said. "I know how she feels." Hemme's story is the main reason why Burton and McIntyre continue to advocate for change. "It goes to show how bad the system needs to be reformed," Burton said. "It is broken. It is broken…decades and decades. It shouldn't take that long to get an innocent person out because it's just like that to get an innocent person put in."
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
