For 43 years

Woman could be wrongly imprisoned in US prison

A woman in the US state of Missouri could have been wrongly imprisoned for more than 43 years. Sandra Hemme is accused of murdering another woman. However, a district judge has now spoken of "clear and convincing" evidence to the contrary.

Rather, this would lead to a police officer who had already died in 2015. For example, earrings belonging to the victim were found on him. According to Judge Ryan Horsman, there were also investigative and procedural errors. The corresponding report is 118 pages long. The lawyers of the 64-year-old woman then applied for her release. According to media reports, the public prosecutor's office now has 30 days to decide whether to reindict Hemme or drop the charges.

If Sandra Hemme is released, this would be the longest known wrongful conviction of a woman in the history of the United States. She has already been behind bars for 43 years.

Sandra Hemme(Bild: AP/Missouri Department of Corrections )

"Contradictory statements"
Hemme was convicted in 1980 for the murder of a 31-year-old woman in her apartment in St. Joseph. "The only evidence linking Hemme to the crime is her own contradictory, unproven statements, statements made when she was in a psychiatric crisis and in physical pain," Horseman wrote in the report. The US-American woman had no motive for the crime, nor was there any forensic evidence.

Two weeks after the crime, however, she accused herself of having committed the murder alone. It was possible that she had stabbed the 31-year-old with a hunting knife, she told the investigators at the time. Hemme's lawyers put this down to a mental crisis and a strong influence of medication. They had failed to present any evidence of this.