Judge orders release of Missouri man whose murder conviction was reversed over AG’s objections
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri judge on Wednesday ordered the release of Christopher Dunn, who has served more than 30 years in prison for a murder he has long claimed he did not commit.
The decision by St. Louis County Judge Jason Sengheiser came after he overturned Dunn’s murder conviction on Monday.
A Missouri prison then ignored a court order to release Dunn, saying the attorney general was appealing, prompting an emergency hearing in court. It was the second such case of its kind.
On Friday, another judge threatened the attorney general with contempt of court if the prison did not release Sandra Hemme. Her murder conviction was also overturned.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Below is the earlier AP story.
St. Louis’ top prosecutor asked a judge Wednesday to enforce his ruling ordering the release of a man whose murder conviction was overturned after 33 years in prison but who remains in prison at the urging of Missouri’s attorney general.
Judge Jason Sengheiser called an emergency hearing Wednesday afternoon, two days after overturning the 52-year-old’s conviction Christopher Dunnwho remains in the state prison in Licking, Missouri. In his ruling Monday, Sengheiser cited evidence of “actual innocence” in the 1990 killing and said the state “will immediately release Christopher Dunn from custody.”
But Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey responded by filing an appeal. The Missouri Department of Corrections has refused to release Dunn because of the appeal.
St. Louis District Attorney Gabe Gore filed a motion Wednesday urging the judge to immediately order Dunn’s release.
“The Attorney General cannot unilaterally decide to ignore the ruling of this Court,” Gore wrote.
A court filing states that a Department of Corrections attorney told an attorney in Gore’s office that Bailey had advised the agency not to release Dunn until the appeal was heard. When told that it was improper to ignore a court order, the Department of Corrections attorney responded “that the Attorney General’s Office is the legal advisor to the DOC and that the DOC would follow the attorney’s advice.”
Bailey’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Dunn’s situation is similar to what happened with Sandra Hemme.
The 64-year-old woman spent 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, wrongfully imprisoned woman in the U.S., according to the Midwest Innocence Project, which worked to free Hemme and Dunn.
But Bailey’s appeals — all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court — kept Hemme locked up in the Chillicothe Correctional Center. During a court hearing Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman said that if Hemme wasn’t released within hours, Bailey would have to appear in court herself with a contempt of court charge on the table. She was released later that day.
The judge also criticized Bailey’s office for calling the Chillicothe warden and instructing prison officials not to release Hemme, when he had released her on her own initiative.
Dunn was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1990 shooting death of 15-year-old Ricco Rogers. Gore’s office investigated the case and filed a motion in February to overturn the guilty verdict.
After considering the case for nearly two months, Sengheiser issued a ruling stating that there was “clear and convincing evidence of ‘actual innocence’ that undermines the basis for Dunn’s convictions because in light of the new evidence no juror, acting reasonably, would have voted to find Dunn guilty of these crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Attorneys for Bailey’s office said during the hearing that initial testimony from two boys at the scene who identified Dunn as the shooter was accurate, even though they recanted their statements as adults.
A law from Missouri adopted in 2021 allows prosecutors to request hearings when they see evidence of a wrongful conviction. While Bailey’s office is not required to oppose such efforts, he did so during a hearing for Lamar Johnsonwho served 28 years in prison for murder. Another judge in St. Louis ruled in February 2023 that Johnson had been wrongly convicted, and he was released.
A new hearing for a death row inmate begins on August 21 Marcellus Williams. Bailey’s office is also opposing the challenge to Williams’ conviction. Timing is of the essence: Williams is planned to be carried out September 24th.
St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion in January to throw out Williams’ conviction for the 1998 fatal stabbing of Lisha Gayle. Bell’s motion stated that three experts had determined that Williams’ DNA was not on the handle of the butcher knife used in the killing.