A judge ruled last month Sandra Hemme must be freed or retried for the 1980 murder within 30 days, but the Missouri Attorney General fought to keep her imprisoned.

A judge ruled last month Sandra Hemme must be freed or retried for the 1980 murder within 30 days, but the Missouri Attorney General fought to keep her imprisoned.

A woman whose murder conviction was overturned after she served 43 years in prison  was released Friday, after Missouri’s attorney general fought for more than a month to keep her behind bars.

Sandra Hemme, 63, left prison Friday in Chillicothe, hours after a judge threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt if they continued to fight against her release. She reunited with her family at a nearby park, where she hugged her daughter and granddaughter. Her sister, Joyce Ann Kays, was all grins.

The judge originally ruled on June 14 that Hemme’s attorneys had established “clear and convincing evidence” of “actual innocence” and overturned the conviction. But Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey fought her release in the courts.