this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
319 points (97.9% liked)

News

23267 readers
3283 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A circuit judge, an appellate court and the Missouri Supreme Court agree that a woman whose murder conviction was overturned should be free after 43 years in prison.

Yet Sandra Hemme is still behind bars, leaving her lawyers and legal experts puzzled.

“I’ve never seen it,” said Michael Wolff, a former Missouri Supreme Court judge and professor and dean emeritus of Saint Louis University Law School. “Once the courts have spoken, the courts should be obeyed.”

The lone holdup to freedom for the 64-year-old woman is opposition from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who has filed court actions seeking to force her to serve additional years for decades-old prison assault cases. The warden at the Chillicothe Correctional Center has declined to let Hemme go, based on Bailey’s actions.

top 22 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 69 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Punishing a person for protecting themselves in a violent hell-hole that she would not have been in if she hadn't been put there wrongly by the state is seriously fucked up. She almost has a case for entrapment. If the state had not put her in prison, she would not have had the means, the motive, nor the opportunity to commit the crime. And since she was wrongly put there, the state should be liable for any crimes committed.

[–] TeoTwawki@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I think that attorney general should have to walk in her shoes for a bit and then have someone hold up his release

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 18 points 3 months ago

Rarely does one ascend to positions of profound influence with the capacity for empathy.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 3 months ago

That’s entirely too logical. Repubs hate their constituents. They hate women. He’s (AG) doing the only thing he knows how: punishing someone weaker than him.

[–] Grass@sh.itjust.works 41 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Keeping people proven innocent in prison should be a massively punishable offence

[–] Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

massively punishable offense

Hear, hear.

Everyone involved in blocking or preventing her release should get prison time and lifetime ban from working in legal, law enforcement, public service.

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Man, we can't even convict an ex-president for all the crimes he committed while in office. I have little hope in any justice these days.

[–] ceenote@lemmy.world 25 points 3 months ago

It's like some people wake up in the morning and ask themselves "How can I be the worst person?"

Sadly for the rest of us, the answer to that question one day was "run for office"

[–] jettrscga@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Bailey, who was appointed attorney general ... has a history of opposing overturning convictions, even when local prosecutors cite evidence of actual innocence.

In 2023, Bailey’s office argued against then-St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s effort to overturn the murder conviction of Lamar Johnson, who was imprisoned 28 years. A St. Louis judge sided with Johnson, who was freed.

Bailey’s office also argued in court in May against freeing Christopher Dunn, who has spent 33 years in prison for a 1990 killing that St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore determined that Dunn probably didn’t commit. A judge is still deciding that case.

And Bailey is opposing St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell’s effort to set aside the murder conviction of Marcellus Williams. A hearing is Aug. 21 — just a month before Williams is scheduled to be executed. Testing unavailable at the time of the 1998 stabbing death found another person’s DNA on the knife, but not Williams’.

I would love to hear his justification for all of these. Is it just the for-profit prison money, or the pride of not being wrong?

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Or he could just be an asshole.

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 4 points 3 months ago

Why not all three. An asshole who can't be wrong and enjoys getting kick backs from for profit prisons.

[–] Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

All the above

[–] OopsAllTwix@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 months ago

Why not both?

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Just bc you didn't commit a crime doesn't mean you are free. - Supreme court

[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't know why you are criticizing the supreme Court here. They sided with them too. It's the AG who should be the target of public ire.

[–] snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Prisons for profit is the entire problem.

[–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

In this case they are easy to appease. Just replace the woman the courts have ordered to be set free with the attorney general. They can even charge more since the piece of shit will need special accommodations.

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 9 points 3 months ago

Slavery is alive and well.

[–] jadedwench@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

Looks like she is out now! Yay!

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

The frayed edge of our government...

[–] Steve@startrek.website 6 points 3 months ago

What are you in for? Resisting arrest…