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John, we have incredible news to share: On July 19, Sandra Hemme was freed. She was the longest-known wrongly incarcerated woman in the U.S. After more than four decades of wrongful imprisonment, she is now where she should have been all along: with her family.
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On June 14, 2024, Livingston County Presiding Judge Ryan Horsman overturned Sandra’s conviction related to a 1980 murder in St. Joseph. No witnesses linked Sandra to the murder, the victim, or the crime scene. She had no motive to harm the victim, nor was there any evidence that the two had ever met. Neither did any physical or forensic evidence link Sandra to the killing. The only evidence that ever connected Sandra 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.
At the same time, the St. Joseph Police Department hid evidence implicating one of their own: A fellow police officer who was found using the victim’s credit card the day after the murder; whose truck was seen parked near the victim’s home at the time she was killed; in whose closet the victim’s earrings were discovered; and who, in the months before and after the murder, committed many other crimes.
In its June 14 ruling, the Court found that Sandra proved her actual innocence, noting that “the only evidence linking Ms. Hemme to the crime was that of her own inconsistent, disproven statements, statements that were taken while she was in psychiatric crisis and physical pain.” Meanwhile, the evidence implicating the police officer was so significant, “it would be difficult to imagine that the State could prove Ms. Hemme’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt based on the weight of the evidence now available that ties [the officer] to this victim and crime and excludes Ms. Hemme.”
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