This website is best viewed in a browser that supports web standards.
Skip to content or, if you would rather, Skip to navigation.
Aug. 6, 2025 | By: KXCV/KRNW News Staff
A Missouri woman who spent 43 years in person for a crime she did not commit is suing the St. Joseph City Police Department and 10 of its former officers.
Sandra Hemme served the longest sentence for a wrongly convicted woman in America before she was exonerated and freed last year.
Hemme's lawsuit, filed in federal court, claims the St. Joseph Police Department framed her for the 1980s murder of a local librarian. The lawsuit claims the department destoryed evidence, coerced confessions, and created a conspiracy to frame Hemme, and protect one of its own officers, Michael Holman. The lawsuit alleges Holman, who died ten years ago, was the real killer.
Since her release, Sandra Hemme has been living in Higginsville, Missouri. The St. Joseph Police Department declined to comment on the story.
KXCV-KRNW
Wells Hall | 800 University Drive | Maryville, MO 64468
660.562.1163 | 660.752.5731 (Chillicothe) | www.kxcv.org
© 2024 KXCV-KRNW. All rights reserved.
Public Radio Service of Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville.
