Court Upholds Overturned Conviction for Sandra Hemme

An appellate court in Missouri ruled last week that a lower court was right when it decided to overturn the murder conviction of a woman who spent 43 years behind bars for a killing that her attorneys argue was committed by a discredited police officer. Sandra Hemme was freed in July while the decision to overturn her conviction was reviewed at the insistence of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R), who argued she should remain imprisoned.

Bailey sought to overturn Hemme's exoneration and release despite these facts:

• No witnesses linked Ms. Hemme to the murder, the victim, or the crime scene. 
• Hemme had no motive to harm the victom, nor was there any evidence that the two had ever met
• There was no physical or forensic evidence linking Ms. Hemme to the killing.
• The only evidence that ever connected Ms. Hemme to the crime was her own unreliable and false confessions: statements taken from her while she was being treated at the state psychiatric hospital and forcibly given medication literally designed to overpower her will. 

At the same time, the St. Joseph (MO) Police Department hid evidence implicating one of their own: a fellow police officer was found using the victim’s credit card the day after the murder. His truck was seen parked near the victim’s home at the time she was killed and he was caught hiding the victim’s earrings in his home. 

Presiding Judge Cynthia Martin wrote in the scathing 71-page ruling that some arguments raised by Bailey's office bordered “on the absurd” and gave prosecutors 10 days to refile charges, and said that the record “strongly suggests” that police buried their investigation into Holman.

The same conclusion was reached in June when Judge Ryan Horsman in Livingston County overturned her conviction. He found that Hemme's attorney had established “clear and convincing evidence” of “actual innocence." But Bailey asked the appellate court to review that decision, arguing that Horsman had exceeded his authority and that Hemme failed to present sufficient evidence on some of her claims.

Bailey has a history of fighting overturned conviction cases. In July, a St. Louis circuit judge overturned Christopher Dunn’s murder conviction and ordered his immediate release. Among the key evidence used to convict him of first-degree murder was testimony from two boys who later recanted, saying they had been coerced by police and prosecutors.

“It is time for this miscarriage of justice to end,” Hemme’s attorneys said in a statement following the ruling in the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District.

"She's an incredibly strong person who has survived more than most people can imagine. She lives to spend time with her family, you can't make up the lost years, but to really make the most out of every single day that she has," said Jane Pucher, an attorney on Hemme's legal team.