An appellate court has ordered the release of a Missouri woman whose murder conviction was overturned after she served 43 years in prison. The court ruled that Sandra Hemme's attorneys had presented clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence. Hemme, now 64, has been serving a life sentence at a prison northeast of Kansas City after being twice convicted of murder in the death of library worker Patricia Jeschke.
After an extensive review, the judge found that Hemme was heavily sedated and in a malleable mental state when investigators questioned her in a psychiatric hospital. Evidence pointing to a discredited fellow officer who died in 2015 was ignored by the police, and FBI results that could have cleared her were not disclosed before her trials.
