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- [00:01]
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- [00:34]
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- [01:05]
Ann Roderick Jones
Edit Audio.
- [01:10]
Jane Poocher
We had a proceeding where the Attorney General's office was ordered to make sure that Ms. Hemi was released by that evening. And she was met by a number of members of her family, one of her sisters, some nieces and cousins, and her granddaughter, some a big, beautiful, supportive family who surrounded her. And at the time, her father, who has since passed, was in the hospital. And so the very first thing they did was to get Sandy to go and be able to see her dad at his bedside. And we were very grateful that that was able to happen. Because in the midst of this litigation and the efforts to prevent Sandy from being released as she should have been, there was this really ominous question of whether she was going to get out in time to say goodbye to her father. And luckily she did.
- [02:37]
Ann Roderick Jones
If you've been listening to our podcast, you know that we've been reporting on this case for more than a year, and if you're new here, start at the beginning with episode one to better understand where we're at now. In the last episode of the Sandra Hemmy Story, we broke the news that Sandy's murder conviction was overturned, making her the longest known wrongfully incarcerated woman in U.S. history. The news made headlines everywhere, from the local Kansas City news stations to the BBC to the New York Times.
- [03:09]
Jane Poocher
A Missouri judge ordered Sandra Hemmy's release after her murder conviction was overturned last month.
- [03:15]
Ann Roderick Jones
When we heard about Sandy's release from the Chillicothe Correctional center, we were thrilled to finally be able to speak on record with Sandy's legal team. My producer, Allie and I reached out to Sandy's lawyer from the Innocence Project, Jane Poocher. Do you remember where you were when Sandy's habeas petition was granted?
- [03:34]
Jane Poocher
Well, so when relief was granted back in June, I was actually getting on a plane with my family. So I remember that. That was an exciting time to hear that and wonderful news to hear. You know, there have been a lot of big moments in this case, but that was definitely memorable.
- [03:56]
Ann Roderick Jones
Sandy's innocence has been a long time in the making. Nearly 20 years ago, she began reaching out for help.
- [04:03]
Jane Poocher
She wrote to us, you know, saying she was innocent, she had been wrongfully convicted, she had nothing to do with this crime, and asking for our help. You know, we at the Innocence Project get thousands of letters every year through our intake department from people who are, you know, maintaining their innocence. And we are really selective with the cases we take on. On. We want to take on cases where we are really convinced that the person didn't do the thing they're accused of and also where we think we can be of help. And so it was after a few years of review of her case by our intake department, getting records, trying to figure out what we could learn from about such an old case that we took it on. And there was one other attorney in my office who worked on her case first. And then when she left to take on another opportunity, I came onto Sandy's case, and I was thrilled to be able to work on it because it is both so such a righteous cause, so outrageous and disturbing what happened to her, but also because the more I got to know Sandy and her family, the more compelled I was by them, and I am by who they all are and wanting to do whatever I could.
- [05:13]
Ann Roderick Jones
Did Sandy's case feel different than other cases you've worked on?
- [05:18]
Jane Poocher
Every case is a little bit different. I mean, there are, you know, unique stories and challenges and obviously facts to every case. I do think that something that was uniquely shocking for my practice about this case was just the way that she was questioned and the condition she was in at the time that she was questioned. You know, we had testimony at the hearing from a forensic psychiatrist who explained, you know, that. That Sandy was as vulnerable as any person could be, was in a medical and psychiatric crisis when questioned. You know, someone who I think today no one would even deign to talk to in that condition, they shouldn't.
- [05:56]
Ann Roderick Jones
As a reminder, the Police interrogated Sandy eight times over 12 days while she was undergoing treatment at the St. Joseph State Hospital's psychiatric ward and the fact.
- [06:07]
Jane Poocher
That she was questioned repeatedly is really shocking. So I think that is something in that level I personally have not seen in my cases. I know it has happened in other cases, but that was new to me. And you know, I think working, you know, within a system where, you know, it was so clear from the beginning that she did not have connections to this case or to this crime and yet she was continually pursued is something that is again, not unheard of, but was definitely a standout fact of this case for me.
- [06:40]
Ann Roderick Jones
If you've listened to previous episodes of this podcast, you know that Judge Ryan Horstman ruled in June 2024 that in Sandy's case, quote, the totality of evidence supports a finding of actual innocence, unquote. Three weeks later, a state appeals court ruled that Sandy should be set free. While it continued to review the case. This should have been an incredibly joyous occasion. But as we now know, Sandy's release was far from simple. The reason for this boils down to mainly one. Attorney General Andrew Bailey. At the time Sandy was to be released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center, Andrew Bailey was vying for re election. Bailey fought on the platform of showing no weakness on crime, even if it meant keeping innocent people imprisoned. In August of 2024, he won the primary and currently serves as the Missouri Attorney General. What ensued after was a month long fight over whether she should be freed. While the state appeals court reviewed the case, a circuit judge, an appellate court and the Missouri Supreme Court all agreed Sandy should be set free. Bailey repeatedly appealed, using a decades old prison assault charge to try to keep her behind bars. At one point, Judge Horstman scolded Bailey's office for calling the warden and telling prison officials not to release Hemmy after he ordered her to be freed. Horstman said, I would suggest you never do that. Adding to call someone and tell them to disregard a court order is wrong. Bailey asked the appellate court to review that decision, arguing that Judge Horstman had exceeded his authority.
- [08:27]
Jane Poocher
That judge ordered her release, but Missouri AG Andrew Bailey fought it in court today. The judge said Hemi must be released by six o' clock tonight or Bailey will be held in contempt.
- [08:40]
Ann Roderick Jones
So finally, on July 19, 2024, Sandy gets out of prison. After serving 43 years behind bars, she is able to be with her family, to hug them, and to say goodbye to her father, who died just 10 days after her release. But this doesn't mean that Sandy is ruled completely innocent. While she was released from prison, the decision to overturn her conviction was being questioned by, you guessed it, Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who argued that she should remain in prison. I think about this and what it must feel like after so many years to walk out of the prison doors like Sandy did, to embrace her family and get into their car and drive away, but also that you are still not free and there's a chance you could soon go back. Sandy's case wasn't the only one. It appears that Andrew Bailey had been intervening in a number of other exonerations. Take Christopher Dunn, for example, in 2024. All around this same time, a Missouri judge had exonerated Mr. Dunn and ordered his release from prison. Dressed in a jacket and a tie, Mr. Dunn was signing the last of his paperwork when he overheard the warden taking a call saying, we're just about to release him. What do you want me to do? The Missouri Attorney General, Andrew Bailey, had intervened to keep Mr. Dunn behind bars. He was ordered to change back into his prison uniform and return to his cell, leaving his St. Louis prosecutor scrambling to free him. The Missouri Supreme Court had halted his release while it ruled on the appeal. A week later, the court lifted the emergency stay, and St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore dismissed his criminal charges. Dunn changed back into a suit and tie and was finally released from prison. And there's Marcellus Williams, who was convicted of the 1998 murder of a local journalist, even though DNA evidence showed someone else had committed the crime. He spent 24 years in prison, and while evidence of his case was to be reviewed and possibly overturn his conviction, the board reviewing his case was dissolved. In the meantime, Attorney General Andrew Bailey moved to set an execution date. On September 24, 2024, Marcellus Williams was put to death. If anyone here has listened to the podcast Bone Valley from the brilliant Gilbert King, you will understand what a punishing road it can be for those who are innocent to prove this to the law. King has been following the case of Leo Schofield for years and agreed to speak with us about his experience.
- [11:31]
Gilbert King
Gilbert King, and I'm an author and now I'm a podcast host. We've covered the Leo Scofield case. The podcast came out, and then we had some developments happen, and we followed that until Leo was finally released from prison back in April.
- [11:45]
Ann Roderick Jones
Leo was up for parole four times. Is that correct?
- [11:48]
Gilbert King
Yes. Yes. I think it was his fifth time is the one that he finally got it.
- [11:52]
Ann Roderick Jones
Gilbert and I spent a lot of our interview talking about the similarities of these cases we covered. We talked about the frustration and the Pain of those who are unjustly incarcerated. We also talked about what it was like as a journalist to cover an innocence case. Well, I was going to ask you this later, but it's actually a good time to ask it now. Whenever you went into this, and I think I sort of had this experience on our third season. But did you go into it as a journalist thinking, like, I'm just going to present this information? And then it. To me, it seemed by, I don't know, a few episodes in, you were really an advocate. And those are two different things. Right? So I wondered if that's, like, how that worked for you and if that was a similar situation.
- [12:35]
Gilbert King
I mean, really, I'm not used to doing any first person anything in my books. Like, I keep that out of it. I just want it to be like, you know, presenting it from the, you know, the third person. That's how I want to do these stories. So I had to really adjust to that. And I think, like, as we were doing the podcast, you know, we did a lot of research. I mean, I spent years on this, and at some point early on, I figured out that, all right, this guy is definitely innocent. You know, I didn't really. I kind of knew I had people vouching for him, but I'm like, I don't take any of that seriously. I really. I don't care if it's coming from a judge or anybody, which was the case in it. I had to look into it myself. And that's always been my experience. I just don't trust anything unless I look at the primary sources, look at the case, talk to people, and I'm usually pretty skeptical, to be honest with you. In the beginning, at some point, I realized that this man is absolutely innocent. Everything I was finding was pointing towards Jeremy Scott as the killer. That was how I knew. Like, anytime you learn something new, it never points to Leo. This is not a whodunit. And so I was realizing very quickly, early on that this man is innocent. And so I'm sorry, but I don't really feel like I need to apologize for becoming. Maybe using journalism to start the story, but becoming an advocate. I just wanted the truth of this story to be out there. And I don't. I don't make any apologies about where I stand on this.
- [14:00]
Ann Roderick Jones
Like Sandy, Leo sat in prison while the evidence pointed to another person. And like me, Gilbert had similar feelings when Leo was released, like I had when Sandy was declared innocent by Judge Ryan Horstman.
- [14:13]
Gilbert King
You know, it's really difficult because at first you know, you get overwhelmed with the joy, like he's finally getting out. That was what he wanted. That's what everybody wanted, to just get him out of prison. He doesn't belong in prison to begin with.
- [14:26]
Ann Roderick Jones
Leo's release did not go as planned. His initial walkout time was set for 9am but the prison caught wind of the media presence and at the last minute changed his release time to 6am they also took Leo straight to the halfway house where he would be moving into, instead of allowing him to go to a reception that was planned in his honor.
- [14:46]
Gilbert King
And so, you know, Leo's wife Chrissy had planned this banquet for all the guests. Some of them were flying across the country. She planned a luncheon. And all of that had to be scrapped. We all wanted that moment where Leo walks out of the gates to see that. But in ways it was almost more poignant and more beautiful because it happened. We're still under the state's mandate of this is how it's gonna happen.
- [15:10]
Ann Roderick Jones
We're seeing a pattern here in the US A pattern that was brought up repeatedly in different interviews we conducted over the course of this season.
- [15:18]
Unnamed Analyst
And the current Attorney General, Andrew Bailey, who's said they see it as their duty to blindly try to uphold every conviction, no matter what.
- [15:29]
Ann Roderick Jones
The Missouri Attorney General's office, under Democrats and Republicans, have for decades fought innocence cases, and that has been widely criticized. You know, defense attorneys and post conviction lawyers say a prosecutor's job is to do justice, to seek justice, not just to apply convictions.
- [15:48]
Unnamed Analyst
They think the tougher on crime you are, the better it is for your political career. I don't think that's necessarily true anymore, but that's the way that they've always perceived it. So giving a. Giving someone a break or conceding that someone's innocent just doesn't is not in their DNA.
- [16:08]
Ann Roderick Jones
Sandy's release, or lack thereof, was, in a nutshell, a shitshow. But it didn't have to be this way. And frankly, it shouldn't be this way. Sandy shouldn't have ever been in prison in the first place. And that's why we chose to cover this case. Despite there being no evidence that she had committed this crime, and despite there being evidence that pointed to a police officer. Sandy spent 43 years in prison. She should have had her mental health properly cared for. Sandy should have never been approached by the police for Patricia's murder. She should have spent her life raising her children and her grandchildren to the best of her ability. But that's not what happened. Sandy was Released from prison in July. By October, she had been living with her family for a few months, waiting to see what her future held. Her case was being taken to the Western District of the Missouri Court of Criminal Appeals for the next steps and to hear arguments for her permanent release from her lawyers at the Innocence Project. In October of 2024, the Western District of the Missouri Court of Criminal Appeals issued an emphatic and unanimous decision. They denied Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's appeal of Judge Horstman's decision and they ordered that Sandy be unconditionally released from her charges unless the state filed to retry her within 10 days. I can't imagine the anxiety those 10 days held for Sandy and her family, but they passed without any action. So on Tuesday, December 3, 2024, Judge Horstman issued an order permanently and unconditionally vacating Ms. Hemmy's conviction in and sentence finally, once and for all, ending this case. That day at 4:15, I got a text from Melissa, Sandy's daughter, with a PDF document of that very order followed by a text that said, it's done. Melissa told me that she and her family were really happy and that the heavy weight of 44 years was finally lifted from their family. She tells me that Sandy is ecstatic and that everyone is crying tears of happiness. Jane Poocher walked us through the lead up to Sandy's permanent release.
- [18:35]
Jane Poocher
It was certainly very, very frustrating and disturbing to watch. After Judge Horstman granted habeas relief in June to watch concerted efforts to try and prevent Sandy from being released, which had been ordered by Judge Horstman, had been affirmed by the Court of Appeals. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected further challenges to it. And yet she remained in for days and days more. That was disturbing and something I have never seen in another case. And you know, at the end of the day she is home. She has been home since July. She is doing very well and savoring every moment with her family. But she could have and should have had at least several weeks more time home with her family than she got. That was very, very disturbing to see. But we're gonna trying to focus on moving forward and where she is now and you know, hopefully we don't see anything like that again.
- [19:40]
Ann Roderick Jones
To conclude this, in this series, I want to tell you about Sandy. She's living with her sister and brother in law in Missouri. She is surrounded by family. She spends her day doing word puzzles, reading the Bible and playing with dogs. There's a picture of Sandy with her lawyers, Jane and Andrew from the Innocence Project. She's wearing black pants, a black and white pattern blouse under a black cardigan, and a pretty matching necklace. Her gray hair is cut in a sleek bob and she's wearing what looks like newer glasses. But the best part of this picture is the large, genuine smile that's spread across her face. There's another photo on the Innocence Project's website of Sandy wearing a Kansas City Chiefs T shirt and a pair of jeans. She's standing in what looks like a field or a backyard. Again, with that same huge smile on her face. She looks happy and healthy. 44 years after she was falsely accused of a 1980 murder, Sandra Hemme is exonerated after more than four decades in prison. Sandy is the longest known wrongfully incarcerated woman in American history. It could be easy to see this as a story of institutions who failed to protect Sandy. The doctors who let police interrogate her while in medical crisis without legal representation. The lawyers who failed to do their due diligence to protect her at trial. The police who failed to bring the evidence against Michael Holman to light. The Attorney General's office who fought to keep her in prison even after her conviction was overturned. But in creating this podcast, we've also seen a lot of people who have stepped up for Sandy over all these years. There have been friends and family of Sandy's, there have been journalists who continued to investigate the missing evidence in her case, and countless others who in 40 plus years never stopped fighting for her release. While nothing can give Sandy back the four decades of her life that were taken from her, we can have hope that bringing cases like this into the light can work to show the failures of the systems behind incarceration, fueling us to make them better and more human. As I close my laptop and take off my headphones, I will continue to think of Sandy, of her reading the Bible, doing her Word puzzles, and standing tall in the grass with that big smile spread across her face. The Sandra Hemme story is part of the Edit Audio Original series Ozark's True Crime. It is written and hosted by me, Ann Roderick Jones. This episode was produced by Ali Sierwa and Kathleen Speckert and was edited, mixed and masked by Ali Sir Wah. Our Executive producer is Steph Colburn. Thank you immensely to the entire Edit Audio team and to Patrick Rendell for the theme music. Thank you so much to Gilbert King and Jane Poocher. If you want to get in touch with us, you can email us at helloditaud IO that's H E L L O D I T A U d IO.