Black leaders in St. Louis say politics and racism are keeping wrongly convicted man behind bars
ST. LOUIS — Leaders of the Missouri NAACP and other organizations said Tuesday that politics and racism are at the root of the attorney general’s efforts to Christopher Dunn is in custody more than a week after a judge overturned his conviction for murder 34 years ago.
NAACP President Nimrod Chapel Jr. said at a news conference that Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey “exceeded his jurisdiction and authority” by appealing Judge Jason Sengheiser’s July 21 ruling. Sengheiser not only threw out the decades-old conviction, citing evidence of “actual innocence,” but also ordered the state to immediately release Dunn.
But when Bailey appealed, the Missouri Department of Corrections refused to release Dunn until the case was concluded. It is now in the hands of the Missouri Supreme Court. It is uncertain when the court will rule, or when Dunn, 52, will be released.
Another speaker at the news conference, the Rev. Darryl Gray, accused Bailey of “political posturing and political flaunting” ahead of the Aug. 6 Republican primary, where he faces opposition from Will Scharf, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump.
Zaki Baruti of the Universal African People’s Organization said Dunn’s treatment stems from the fact that he is black.
“What is happening now is another form of lynching,” Baruti said.
Bailey’s office said in a statement that the effort to keep Dunn in jail was justified.
“During the appeals process, multiple courts upheld Christopher Dunn’s murder conviction,” the statement said. “We will always fight for the rule of law and to obtain justice for victims.”
Dunn was 18 in 1990 when 15-year-old Ricco Rogers was killed. Testimony from a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old at the scene of the shooting was crucial to Dunn’s conviction for first-degree murder. Both later recanted their testimony, saying they were coerced by police and prosecutors.
At a 2020 evidentiary hearing, a different judge agreed that a jury would likely find Dunn not guilty based on new evidence. But that judge, William Hickle, refused to acquit Dunn, citing a 2016 Missouri Supreme Court ruling that only death row inmates — not those like Dunn, who was sentenced to life without parole — could make a “stand-alone” claim of actual innocence.
A law from 2021 now allows prosecutors to request hearings in cases involving new evidence of wrongful conviction. St. Louis District Attorney Gabe Gore requested the hearing on Dunn’s behalf, and Sengheiser heard testimony in May.
Another case, a black inmate, will go before a different judge on August 21, with life-or-death consequences.
Marcellus Williams is on death row for the 1998 stabbing death of a St. Louis County woman. He is scheduled for execution Sept. 24 unless his conviction is overturned. St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell requested the hearing. His motion said three experts determined that Williams’ DNA was not on the handle of the butcher knife used in the killing.
Bailey’s office will also oppose overturning Williams’ conviction.
But there was another inmate Bailey wanted to keep after his conviction was overturned, and he was white.
Sandra HemmeHemme, 64, served 43 years in prison for fatally stabbing a woman in St. Joseph in 1980. A judge on June 14 cited evidence of “actual innocence” and overturned her conviction. She was the longest-serving woman wrongfully imprisoned in the U.S., according to the National Innocence Project, which worked to secure Hemme’s release.
Appeals by Bailey — all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court — kept Hemme in custody at the Chillicothe Correctional Center for several days, until a judge ordered her immediate release on July 19 and threatened Bailey with possible contempt of court charges. Hemme was released later that day.