American woman pleaded guilty to a crime she did not commit, then spent 43 years in prison innocent

(Patria) - A woman from Missouri, who spent 43 years in prison, was exonerated after a judge determined there was clear and convincing evidence of her innocence.

Sandra Hemme (63) was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Patricia Jeschke, a librarian in Saint Joseph.

The murder occurred in 1980, and Hemme was convicted after giving statements to the police that incriminated herself. However, Hemme was mentally ill at the time.

On Friday, Livingston County Judge Ryan Horsman ruled that "evidence directly" links a local police officer to the librarian's murder.

The said officer later ended up in prison for another crime and has since died.

- Hemme must be released within 30 days, unless prosecutors decide to retry her - Judge Horsman stated.

The ruling followed an evidentiary hearing in January where Hemme's legal team presented arguments supporting her innocence.

This prison sentence represents the longest known wrongful conviction of a woman in U.S. history, Hemme's attorneys from the non-profit organization Innocence Project announced.

- We are grateful to the court for recognizing the serious injustice that Ms. Hemme has endured for more than four decades - the attorneys stated.

Hemme initially pleaded guilty to the murder in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, the Guardian reports.

The first conviction was overturned on appeal, but she was convicted again in 1985 after a one-day trial where the only evidence against her was her "confession."

In a 147-page petition seeking her release, attorneys argued that authorities ignored Hemme's "contradictory" and "factually impossible" statements.

Hemme, who was 20 at the time, was being treated in a psychiatric hospital for hallucinations, derealization, and drug use. During a series of hours-long interviews, she gave contradictory statements about the murder, the attorneys emphasized.

"At some points, she was under such strong medication that she could not even lift her head and was tied to a chair," they wrote.

Detectives noted that Hemme appeared "confused" and could not fully understand their questions.

Steven Fueston, a retired detective from the Saint Joseph Police Department, testified that he stopped one of the interviews because Hemme "did not seem fully coherent."

- The police exploited her mental illness and forced her to give false statements while she was under sedatives and antipsychotics - the attorneys stated.

They added that authorities covered up evidence pointing to the killer being Michael Holman, then a 22-year-old police officer who tried to use the victim's credit card.

Holman's truck was seen near the crime scene, and a pair of earrings identified by the victim's father was found on him.