Missouri
Missouri woman who spent 43 years in prison is free after her murder conviction was overturned
A woman whose murder conviction was overturned after she served 43 years of a life sentence was released Friday, despite attempts in the last month by Missouri’s attorney general to keep her behind bars.
Sandra Hemme, 64, left a prison in Chillicothe, hours after a judge threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt if they continued to fight against her release. She reunited with her family at a nearby park, where she hugged her sister, daughter and granddaughter.
“You were just a baby when your mom sent me a picture of you,” she said. “You looked just like your mamma when you were little and you still look like her.”
Her granddaughter laughed. “I get that a lot.”
Hemme had been the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to her legal team at the Innocence Project. The judge originally ruled on June 14 that Hemme’s attorneys had established “clear and convincing evidence” of “actual innocence” and he overturned her conviction. But Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey fought her release in the courts.
“It was too easy to convict an innocent person and way harder than it should have been to get her out, even to the point of court orders being ignored,” her attorney Sean O’Brien said. “It shouldn’t be this hard to free an innocent person.”
During a court hearing Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman said that if Hemme wasn’t released within hours, Bailey himself would have to appear in court Tuesday morning. He threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt.
He also scolded Bailey’s office for calling the warden and telling prison officials not to release Hemme after he ordered her to be freed in her own recognizance. “I would suggest you never do that,” Horsman said, adding: “To call someone and tell them to disregard a court order is wrong.”
Hemme declined to address reporters after she was released. O’Brien said she was going straight to the side of her father, who was hospitalized with kidney failure and recently moved to palliative care. “This has been a long time coming,” he said of her release.
O’Brien said previously that delays had caused their family “irreparable harm and emotional distress.”
There are still struggles ahead.
“She’s going to need help,” he said, noting she won’t be eligible for Social Security because she has been incarcerated for so long.
A situation lawyers have “never seen”
Over the last month, a circuit judge, an appellate court and the Missouri Supreme Court all agreed Hemme should be released, but she was still held behind bars, leaving her lawyers and legal experts puzzled.
“I’ve never seen it,” said Michael Wolff, a former Missouri Supreme Court judge and professor and dean emeritus of Saint Louis University Law School. “Once the courts have spoken, the courts should be obeyed.”
The lone holdup to freedom came from the attorney general, who filed court motions seeking to force her to serve additional years for decades-old prison assault cases. The warden at the Chillicothe Correctional Center initially declined to let Hemme go, based on Bailey’s actions.
Horsman ruled on June 14 that “the totality of the evidence supports a finding of actual innocence.” A state appeals court ruled on July 8 that Hemme should be set free while it continued to review the case. The next day, July 9, Horsman ruled Hemme should be released to go home with her sister. The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday declined to undo the lower court rulings that allowed her to be released on her own recognizance and placed with her sister and brother-in-law.
Bailey, a Republican facing opposition in the Aug. 6 primary election, responded with another request late Thursday, asking the Circuit Court to reconsider.
Hemme was serving a life sentence at the Chillicothe Correctional Center for the 1980 stabbing death of library worker Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Hemme’s immediate freedom was complicated by sentences she received for crimes committed while behind bars. She received a 10-year sentence in 1996 for attacking a prison worker with a razor blade, and a two-year sentence in 1984 for “offering to commit violence.” Bailey had argued that Hemme represents a safety risk to herself and others and that she should start serving those sentences now.
Her attorneys countered that keeping her incarcerated any longer would be a “draconian outcome.”
Some legal experts agreed.
Peter Joy, a law professor at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, said the effort to keep Hemme in prison was “a shock to the conscience of any decent human being,” since evidence strongly suggests she didn’t commit the crime.
Bailey’s office did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Friday.
Bailey, who was appointed attorney general after Eric Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022, has a history of opposing overturning convictions, even when local prosecutors cite evidence of actual innocence.
Horsman, after an extensive review, concluded in June that Hemme was heavily sedated and in a “malleable mental state” when investigators repeatedly questioned her in a psychiatric hospital after the killing. Her attorneys described her ultimate confession as “often monosyllabic responses to leading questions.”
CBS News previously reported that the attorneys called her statements “wildly contradictory” and “factually impossible.”
She initially didn’t mention a murder, then claimed Jeschke was killed by a man who police later determined was in Topeka at the time, and then later said she knew about the murder because of “extrasensory perception,” according to her attorneys.
The Innocence Project accused police of manipulating Hemme into giving the confession.
“Police exploited her mental illness and coerced her into making false statements while she was sedated and being treated with antipsychotic medication,” the Innocence Project said in an online petition, according to previous CBS News reporting. “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.”
Other than the confession, no evidence linked her to the crime, her trial prosecutor said.
The St. Joseph Police Department, meanwhile, ignored evidence pointing to Michael Holman — a fellow officer, who died in 2015 — and the prosecution wasn’t told about FBI results that could have cleared Hemme, so it was never disclosed before her trials, the judge found.
Evidence presented to Horsman showed that Holman’s pickup truck was seen outside Jeschke’s apartment, that he tried to use her credit card, and that her earrings were found in his home. His alibi also could not be corroborated, CBS News reported.
Horsman, in his report, called Hemme “the victim of a manifest injustice.”
St. Louis could see major downtown renovation in the coming years helped by legislation signed into Missouri law by Gov. Mike Kehoe on Monday.
Kehoe signed a large economic development bill that includes incentivizing the conversion of vacant or underused properties into new housing.
For St. Louis, that could mean changes to the AT&T tower and Railway Exchange building.
Through the legislation, cities could apply for an area to become a Missouri innovation zone and be able to use incentives distributed by the state Department of Economic Development.
Cities must include proposed district boundaries, identify vacant and underutilized properties as well as provide projections of anticipated housing and employment growth in their application. Cities may only establish one of those districts.
Additionally, the legislation allows for up to $50 million annually in tax credits toward the conversion of buildings into residential spaces.
Sen. Steve Roberts, D-St. Louis, said the legislation will ultimately lead to more people living in downtown St. Louis.
“The passage of House Bill 3231 was critical in our efforts to continue revitalizing Missouri’s main streets, central business districts, and downtowns,” Kehoe said in a statement.
The governor signed seven other bills into law Monday, including a wide-reaching health care bill that contains several policies related to reproductive health.
The nearly 200-page bill allows for Missourians on private insurance to obtain 12 months’ worth of birth control pills at once.
It also expands Medicaid coverage to doula services. It would apply to more care before, during and after a pregnancy. The state health department must also create and operate a registry of available doula services.
Additionally, the bill requires insurance companies to cover blood pressure monitors for pregnant and postpartum mothers.
The bill also requires Missouri to track and report cases of Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome. Alpha-gal is a tick-borne disease that creates an allergy to mammalian products like meat.
Any identifiable information on the blood test could only be shared between patient and physician.
The legislation also:
- Allows patients to begin their care through telemedicine, as opposed to a physical examination whenever possible.
- Permits the sale of ivermectin, a drug that’s grown in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic, over the counter. It also expands the types of vaccines pharmacists can administer.
- Prevents insurance companies from capping payment for anesthesia by imposing time limits.
- Permits schools and daycares to provide epinephrine either via injection or orally to treat allergic reactions.
Additionally, Kehoe signed a bill that provides rights to “a child born alive during or after an abortion or attempted abortion.”
The legislation is called the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Anyone who would kill or attempt to kill a fetus born alive after an abortion attempt could be prosecuted for first-degree murder under the bill.
Those against the bill say the focus on abortion causes consequences regarding maternal care in Missouri.
Fetal viability, or the point when a fetus would be able to survive outside the womb, is generally around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
According to KFF health research, abortions at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy are uncommon, representing 1% of all abortions in the country.
Kehoe said in a statement that he was proud to sign bills that will improve health care services across the state.
“I would like to thank the members of the House and Senate for their work to protect our most vulnerable, hold insurance companies accountable, and change the landscape of healthcare access and outcomes in communities across the state,” Kehoe said.
The Missouri Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 12, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Pick 3 numbers from July 12 drawing
Midday: 7-1-3
Midday Wild: 0
Evening: 9-6-1
Evening Wild: 3
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from July 12 drawing
Midday: 0-9-0-9
Midday Wild: 8
Evening: 2-9-7-1
Evening Wild: 4
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Cash Pop numbers from July 12 drawing
Early Bird: 05
Morning: 04
Matinee: 05
Prime Time: 04
Night Owl: 09
Check Cash Pop payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Show Me Cash numbers from July 12 drawing
05-16-21-27-39
Check Show Me Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize
All Missouri Lottery retailers can redeem prizes up to $600. For prizes over $600, winners have the option to submit their claim by mail or in person at one of Missouri Lottery’s regional offices, by appointment only.
To claim by mail, complete a Missouri Lottery winner claim form, sign your winning ticket, and include a copy of your government-issued photo ID along with a completed IRS Form W-9. Ensure your name, address, telephone number and signature are on the back of your ticket. Claims should be mailed to:
Ticket Redemption
Missouri Lottery
P.O. Box 7777
Jefferson City, MO 65102-7777
For in-person claims, visit the Missouri Lottery Headquarters in Jefferson City or one of the regional offices in Kansas City, Springfield or St. Louis. Be sure to call ahead to verify hours and check if an appointment is required.
For additional instructions or to download the claim form, visit the Missouri Lottery prize claim page.
When are the Missouri Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
- Pick 3: 12:45 p.m. (Midday) and 8:59 p.m. (Evening) daily.
- Pick 4: 12:45 p.m. (Midday) and 8:59 p.m. (Evening) daily.
- Cash4Life: 8 p.m. daily.
- Cash Pop: 8 a.m. (Early Bird), 11 a.m. (Late Morning), 3 p.m. (Matinee), 7 p.m. (Prime Time) and 11 p.m. (Night Owl) daily.
- Show Me Cash: 8:59 p.m. daily.
- Lotto: 8:59 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday.
- Powerball Double Play: 9:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Missouri editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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