QUALITY EDUCATION / After Taullau's invitation, Merkel takes the first bus to visit Kazma's school!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

The story of Sandra, the woman who spent 43 years in prison for a crime she did not commit

2024-06-17 21:54:35Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Sandra (Sandy) Hemme

A Missouri woman spent 43 years in prison for a crime she did not commit. But finally, on Friday, she was released after new evidence of her innocence was presented in court.

Sandra (Sandy) Hemme, 63, was sentenced to life in prison in 1980 for the murder of Patricia Jeschka, a librarian from Missouri, after Sandra got herself into trouble by giving statements to the police while she was a psychiatric patient.

On Friday, evidence was presented in court that the murder was in fact committed by a local policeman who then ended up in prison for another crime and died, writes The Guardian.

Sandra Hemme, who spent 43 years behind bars, must be released within 30 days unless prosecutors decide to open a new case.

Hemme's time in prison is considered the longest an innocent person has served in a prison, said attorneys from the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that helps wrongfully convicted people.

"We are grateful that the court finally recognized the great injustice inflicted on Sandra Hemme, who served her sentence for more than 40 years," the statement said.

She admitted to avoiding the death penalty

Hemme initially pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, but her conviction was overturned on appeal. She was tried again in 1985 when the only evidence against her was her "confession".

In a 147-page petition seeking her release, lawyers argued that Heme's statements were "factually impossible" and that she made them while she was a patient in a psychiatric hospital.

Hemme, then 20, was being treated for auditory hallucinations, derealization and drug use when she was targeted by police, her lawyers said. She spent most of her life, beginning at the age of 12, in psychiatric hospital treatment.

Hemme gave conflicting accounts of the killing at hearings while being treated with antipsychotics, her lawyers said.

"At some points she was under such strong medication that she could not even lift her head and was tied to a chair," they wrote.

Detectives noticed that Hemme was confused and could not fully understand their questions. Steven Fueston, a retired detective with the St. Louis Police Department. Joseph testified that he ended one of the conversations because it "didn't seem completely coherent."

Police "exploited her mental illness and forced her to make false statements while she was being treated with antipsychotics," Sandra's lawyers said.

The police covered up the evidence against their colleague

Sandra's attorneys also claim that police at the time suppressed evidence that pointed to Michael Holman, the then 22-year-old officer, who tried to use the victim's credit card. Holman's truck was seen near the crime scene and a pair of earrings identified by the murdered woman's father were found in his possession.

Holman was a suspect and questioned at the time, but Sandra Hemme's lawyers never saw the documents. Holman was investigated for insurance fraud and spent time in prison and died in 2015.

The new ruling states that "there is no evidence other than Ms. Hemme's unreliable statements made while she was in a psychiatric crisis and in physical pain."

On the other hand, "the evidence directly links Holman to the crime scene and the murder." He said prosecutors had failed to uncover evidence that would have helped Hemme's defense and that her attorney had fallen "below all professional standards."


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×