A US woman who was imprisoned in connection with murder has been freed, and her conviction overturned after spending 43 years in prison for a murder she was later found not to have committed.
Sandra “Sandy” Hemme was convicted in 1985 based on her incriminating statements made while she was a psychiatric patient, The Guardian reports.
A judge has however ruled now that there is “clear and convincing” evidence that she was innocent of the crime.
Hemme, now 63, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1980 murder of a library worker, Patricia Jeschke, in St Joseph, Missouri, after Hemme made statements to the police incriminating herself while she was a psychiatric patient.
Livingston County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman on Friday ruled that “evidence directly” links the murder of Jeschke to a local police officer who later went to prison for another crime and has since died.
The judge said that Hemme who has spent the last 43 years behind bars, must be freed within 30 days unless prosecutors decide to re-try her.
The judge’s decision followed a January hearing where Hemme’s legal team presented evidence linking the murder to Michael Holman, a former local police officer who has since passed away.
Hemme’s conviction was the longest-known wrongful conviction of a woman in US history.
Her legal team, with the Innocence Project, argued that authorities ignored Hemme’s contradictory statements and failed to disclose evidence that would have helped her defence.
Her lawyers in a statement said, “We are grateful to the Court for acknowledging the grave injustice Ms Hemme has endured for more than four decades.”
Hemme initially pleaded guilty to capital murder to avoid the death penalty, but her conviction was later overturned on appeal.
She was retried in 1985, with the only evidence against her being her contradictory and factually impossible “confession” made while she was a psychiatric patient.
In a 147-page petition, her attorneys seeking her exoneration argued that authorities had ignored these inconsistencies.
At the time, 20-year-old Hemme was undergoing treatment for auditory hallucinations, de-realization, and drug use. Her attorneys noted that she had a history of inpatient psychiatric care, having spent most of her life in treatment since the age of 12.
