Missouri wrongfully imprisoned Sandra Hemme for 43 years. Why state won’t compensate her
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Sandra “Sandy” Hemme spent more than 43 years in prison for a murder she did not commit. But she won’t be eligible for any compensation from the state of Missouri.
The state’s compensation law only provides money for those exonerated through DNA evidence.
Hemme, 64, got her case overturned by proving statements she made to police while in a psychiatric hospital were unreliable and that evidence in the 1980 murder pointed to a now-deceased police officer. She has been in prison since she was 20.
Her prison term marks the longest known wrongful conviction of a woman in U.S. history, according to information from the National Registry of Exonerations.
She was released Friday after a long legal battle that was extended as the Missouri Attorney General’s Office fought to keep her behind bars, even after a judge declared her innocent in June and ordered her free.
Hemme joins a growing list of wrongfully convicted people in Missouri, including Ricky Kidd and Kevin Strickland, who were also ineligible for state compensation. They each filed civil lawsuits against the Kansas City Police Department, which remain ongoing in federal court.
On Monday, Christopher Dunn’s conviction in St. Louis City was vacated after two witnesses recanted. The 52 year old spent 34 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, but he will also not be eligible for compensation because his case was not DNA-related.
Missouri Rep. LaKeySha Bosley, a Democrat from St. Louis City, has sponsored legislation since 2019 to change the state’s compensation law. The measure introduced in this year’s session would have allowed damages up to $65,000 for every year someone was wrongfully incarcerated regardless of how they were exonerated. That’s the same amount Kansas pays under a law passed in 2018.
In Hemme’s case, that would add up to about $2.8 million. The proposed bill also would have covered tuition at a higher education institution, but it did not advance in the General Assembly. Bosley, who is up for re-election, said she wants the legislation to be introduced again next year.
“When we get it wrong, we have to do everything in our power, in the state legislature as well as in the criminal justice system, to right that wrong,” Bosley said.
She noted that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, who is not seeking re-election, vetoed a compensation bill in 2023.
“Whoever the next governor will be, I implore them to revisit the ideals of wrongful conviction exonerations and see how this has affected people’s lives,” Bosley said.
“I’m not going to stop trying, and I know other representatives are not going to stop trying.”
Bosley’s bill would also have required the person to be fully exonerated. Hemme was declared innocent by a judge on June 14. The Buchanan County Prosecutor’s Office was given 30 days to decide if charges were to be dismissed or to re-try Hemme. That deadline has since passed without a clear decision.
Prosecutor Michelle Davidson has not responded to multiple requests for comment about the case.
Hemme was released on Friday and is going to live with her sister and brother-in-law. Her attorney Sean O’Brien said she was going to need financial help because she was not eligible to receive Social Security.
Hemme had been convicted in the murder of Patricia Jeschke. Former St. Joseph Police Department officer Michael Holman, who had used the victim’s credit card after her death and whose earrings were found in his possession, was later implicated. He died in 2015.
In Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Ryan Horsman’s order vacating Hemme’s conviction, he found “the evidence establishing Ms. Hemme’s innocence to be clear and convincing.”
