By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A former mental patient who confessed to the 1980 murder of a St. Joseph State Hospital librarian will be released from the Chillicothe women’s prison unless prosecutors decide to retry her.
A judge has overturned the conviction of Sandra Hemme in the death of 31-year-old librarian Patricia Jeschke. Hemme, who is now 63, has spent 43 years in prison after her conviction in Jeschke’s death.
Livingston County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman found Hemme has a credible claim of innocence. Prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether another trial should be held.
The Innocence Project, which petitioned for Hemme’s release, claims investigators ignored her mental state and evidence that implicated discredited police officer Michael Holman, who was fired from the St. Joseph Police Department and died in 2015. Judge Horsman wrote that no evidence points to Hemme, but directly ties Holman to the murder scene.
An initial plea of guilty by Hemme was thrown out by the court, but a jury convicted her of murder in 1985 after a one-day trial.
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