A judge has overturned the conviction of a Missouri woman who was a psychiatric patient when she incriminated herself in a 1980 killing that her attorneys argue was actually committed by a now-discredited police officer.
Judge Ryan Horsman ruled late Friday that Sandra Hemme, who has spent 43 years behind bars, had established evidence of actual innocence and must be freed within 30 days unless prosecutors retry her. He said her trial counsel was ineffective and prosecutors failed to disclose evidence that would have helped her.
Her attorneys say this is the longest time a women has been been incarcerated for a wrongful conviction. They filed a motion seeking her immediate release.
Hemme was shackled in leather wrist restraints and so heavily sedated that she “could not hold her head up straight” or “articulate anything beyond monosyllabic responses” when she was first questioned about the death of 31-year-old library worker Patricia Jeschke, according to her lawyers with the New York-based Innocence Project.
Jesus Christ
This is one of the reasons why the death penalty is fucking bullshit.
Well sometimes it makes sense. It should really be for those psychos that clearly show signs of disregard for human life and would kill again if released.
40% of death penalty convictions are later exonerated.
If it was 1% you might have a case, but pretty much “clearly showing signs” is akin to flipping a coin right now.
It’s already for that. It happens only rarely and I doubt any were available for parole. That being said, it’s so rare we could just do without. 2022 had 18 people executed, we are already a hairsbreath away from not doing it so why bother.
My guess is out of all the people that have the power to orchestrate someone’s legal death, a select few actively get off on it and push for it.
It makes sense if society has collapsed and keeping prisoners alive isn’t possible without seriously straining infrastructure, so something like a civil war, but otherwise it’s pointless. They won’t be released, so they won’t kill again, so what’s the point?
It should really be for those psychos that clearly show signs of disregard for human life and would kill again if released.
And how do you determine that? If society was more skeptical and less prone to having a
justicepunishment boner, we could possible keep the death penalty for extreme situations, but we’re really just savages not far removed from the Roman Colosseum spectators demanding to see death.
It kills me that they can take up to 30 days to free someone who’s been proven innocent. How about right now, mother fuckers?
The legal system constantly using paperwork and bureaucracy to drag its incompetent feet is potentially going to destroy this country when 45 becomes 47.
“Prosecutors failed to disclose evidence that would have helped her”
What the fuck. They knew, but threw her in jail anyway.
Prosecutors, district attorneys, and judges all have a very close relationship with cops. Cops are what physically keep the bodies coming into the prison industrial complex and the rest of the system has political and monetary incentives to keep the treadmill going.
This is why leftists lump them together when saying “ACAB”. The purpose of a system is what it does, and this is impossible to do without the cooperation of those three parties.
This is why you don’t talk to a cop. By initiating a conversation with you, they have already begun acting in bad faith.
It doesn’t matter what lies they legally spew at you, how friendly they act, etc. If a cop talks to you, they are trying to nail you to a cross.
The human world isn’t about what’s true. The human world is about what feels good, specifically for the people who get to make those decisions.
If the people in power decide that marrying children feels good, they will bring it back. It doesn’t matter that we say it’s immoral, they will do it.
Well feels before reals may be an issue, but when someone’s job depends on being “tough on crime” and closing cases you have an issue of someone placing their image and paycheck above someone’s life.
The so-called justice system has been fucked since the beginning.
Terrifying they can just lock you up for decades when you are innocent. Villainous.
They can execute you too
WHOOPS Sorry! Here’s a $10 gift card to Starbucks.
Ha, you think they’ll be that generous? They’ll probably charge her for 43 years of room and board.
Her attorneys say this is the longest time a women has been been incarcerated for a wrongful conviction
That we know of.
I take it that they will let her out and give her nothing for all the lost time? I couldn’t find anything about monetary compensation in the article.
Some states have “maximums” to pay for wrongful convictions as well, like tragically small payouts. I feel like if you steal years of someone’s life, they shouldn’t have to worry about another thing the rest of the life you didn’t steal.
The cop did it
