Missouri Supreme Court blocks man's release after 1990 murder conviction is overturned

For more than 30 years, Christopher Dunn has been incarcerated in Missouri, accused of a murder he insisted he did not commit. Freedom seemed within his grasp when a circuit judge overturned his conviction and ordered for his release Wednesday — only to be overruled when the state Supreme Court granted the attorney general’s request for a stay.

The legal showdown over Dunn’s release marks the second time in a matter of weeks that Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey has fought a court order to release an inmate who was found to be wrongly convicted.

Last month, Sandra Hemme, 64, the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., had her conviction overturned, only to have Bailey appeal her release, keeping her behind bars. Ultimately, she was released July 19 after a judge threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt of court.

Dunn, now 52, was 18 when he was accused of fatally shooting Ricco Rogers, 15, on the night of May 18, 1990.

Though there was no physical evidence in the case linking Dunn to the shooting, he was convicted of first-degree murder in a case that heavily relied on two young witnesses who claimed to see the shooting. Those witnesses, who were 12 and 14, later recanted their testimony as adults and said they were coerced by prosecutors and police.

St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser overturned Dunn’s conviction on Monday following a motion filed by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore in February seeking to vacate the guilty verdict.

“The State of Missouri shall immediately discharge Christopher Dunn from its custody,” Sengheiser’s ruling said, according to The Associated Press.

Sengheiser ordered that Dunn be freed by 6 p.m. Wednesday — a move blocked by Bailey’s motion for an emergency stay and sustained by the state’s highest court.

Under the state Supreme Court order, Sengheiser has until 5 p.m. Friday to file suggestions in opposition to Bailey’s motion for the stay and Bailey has until 5 p.m Monday to file suggestions in reply.

Dunn’s attorney, Justin Bonus, said his team was working to respond to the attorney general’s motion.

“Christopher Dunn has been found innocent by two separate judges after both judges hearing the evidence before them,” Bonus said in a statement to NBC News. “He remains in prison, an innocent man, with his conviction overturned. This is a travesty of justice.”

“The AG should not be fighting Judge Sengheiser’s decision. Their job is not to fight to uphold convictions, but to seek justice. That is not what is happening here,” Bonus added.

The Midwest Innocence Project, which worked to free Dunn and Hemme, said in a statement on X: “Chris’ legal team hoped and expected him to be released this evening. But at the Attorney General’s request, and less than an hour before Chris’ scheduled release, the Missouri Supreme Court stayed the order to release Chris, and requested additional briefing.”

“Tragically, Chris will remain in custody at the South Central Correctional Facility as his legal team continues to work to secure his release.”

NBC News has reached out to the attorney general’s office and Dunn’s legal team for comment.

For Dunn’s family, the decision was frustrating.

“We are devastated and so confused as to why the Missouri Supreme entertained the Attorney General’s improper intrusion into a matter already settled by a judge. Chris was literally a few steps away from freedom when the call came,” Dunn’s wife, Kira Dunn, said in a statement to NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis. “This is unimaginably cruel treatment of a proven innocent person. It is torture. It is pointless. It is a perversion of what justice should be in Missouri.”