A Missouri judge ruled Friday there is “clear and convincing” evidence that a woman imprisoned for more than four decades in Missouri is innocent.
Attorneys for Sandra “Sandy” Hemme, now 64, immediately moved to free her from Chillicothe Correctional Center. If released, Hemme’s prison term will mark the longest known wrongful conviction of a woman in U.S. history. Hemme was convicted in a 1980 murder in St. Joseph. In an 118-page memorandum, Livingston County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman said “evidence directly” ties a now-deceased police officer to the killing of Patricia Jeschke.