ST. LOUIS (AP) — A man who was on the verge of leaving prison this week after a judge found evidence of his “actual innocence” and overturned his murder conviction now faces a up-to-date legal hurdle.
The person blocking Christopher Dunn’s release is Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who is fresh off an unsuccessful fight to keep another woman incarcerated after her murder conviction was overturned.
Political analysts say Bailey’s efforts are a way to crack down on crime and win votes ahead of a tough primary. Judges and defense attorneys have expressed frustration.
“His actions cause undue harm to this innocent human being and are a stain on our legal system,” said Michael Heiskell, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, when asked about Bailey’s opposition to Dunn’s release.
Here are some things you should know:
Who is Christopher Dunn?
Dunn, who is black, was 18 when Ricco Rogers, then 15, was killed in 1990. Key evidence used to convict him of deliberate murder included the testimony of two boys who were at the scene of the shooting. Both later recanted their statements, saying they were pressured by police and prosecutors.
Judge Jason Sengheiser on Monday overturned the murder conviction against the now 52-year-old and ordered his immediate release. Bailey’s office appealed and prison officials refused to release Dunn.
Sengheiser then held a special hearing on Wednesday and threatened to hold the prison warden in contempt of court if he did not release Dunn within hours. Dunn was signing papers and preparing to leave the building when the Missouri Supreme Court agreed to consider Bailey’s objections and halted his release, a Department of Corrections spokesman said.
“This is not justice,” the Midwest Innocence Project, which represents Dunn, said in a statement.
A spokesman for Bailey defended the attorney general in an email Thursday evening.
“Throughout the appeals process, multiple courts have affirmed Christopher Dunn’s murder conviction,” the statement said. “We will always fight for the rule of law and ensure that justice is done for the victims.”
Dunn’s case is the second verdict in the state in recent weeks involving “actual innocence.” Sandra Hemme, now 64, served 43 years in prison for fatally stabbing a library worker in 1980 before a judge overturned her conviction.
Bailey’s appeals – all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court – kept Hemme incarcerated at the Chillicothe Correctional Center for more than a month after that initial ruling. During a court hearing last Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman rebuked a lawyer in Bailey’s office for telling the warden not to release Hemme on parole pending a review by the appeals court.
“Calling someone and telling them to ignore a court order is wrong,” Horsman said. He said if Hemme was not released within hours, Bailey would have to appear in court himself because contempt of court charges were on the table.
Hemme, whose lawyers at the Innocence Project called her the longest-imprisoned woman in the United States, was released later that day.
“You have to obey the court’s orders,” said Michael Wolff, a former judge and chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court.
Bailey’s resistance to claims of innocence
A Missouri law passed in 2021 allows prosecutors to request hearings if they see evidence of a wrongful conviction.
The law was passed after another judge, William Hickle, found in 2020 that a jury would likely find Dunn not guilty based on up-to-date evidence. But Hickle declined to order Dunn’s release, citing a 2016 Missouri Supreme Court ruling that only people on death row can make a “standalone” claim of actual innocence.
In 2023, Bailey opposed the release of Lamar Johnson, who served 28 years in prison for murder. Another judge in St. Louis overturned Johnson’s conviction and he was released.
The stakes are even higher at next month’s hearing. The St. Louis County prosecutor believes DNA evidence shows Marcellus Williams did not commit the crime for which he was put on death row. DNA from someone else — but not Williams — was found on the knife used in the 1998 murder, experts said.
A hearing on Williams’ plea of innocence will begin on August 21. His execution is scheduled for September 24.
Bailey’s office also declines to challenge Williams’ conviction.
Bailey’s appointment as Attorney General
When Eric Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2022, Republican Governor Mike Parson appointed Bailey, who was serving as the governor’s counsel at the time, as Schmitt’s successor.
Bailey’s first electoral test is next month’s primary. Ken Warren, professor emeritus of political science at Saint Louis University, said the fight for the release of inmates advances Bailey’s agenda.
“This will only help him expand his base,” he said.
Bailey’s opponent, Will Scharf, a former federal prosecutor who recently served as a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, attacks Bailey as a liberal, said Steven Puro, professor emeritus of political science at St. Louis University.
Puro said Bailey tries to appear tough but avoids being perceived as indifferent and law-breaking.
“Most other prosecutors felt the risk was not worth the benefit,” Puro said.
Bailey’s employ of the courts
Since taking office, Bailey has sued Planned Parenthood and President Joe Biden, tried to force clinics that provide gender reassignment treatments to release their records, and pressured a liberal prosecutor to resign.
As the debate over access to gender-affirming health care for transgender minors reached its peak in Missouri in 2023, Bailey sought to restrict access for both minors and adults through regulation – a step normally reserved for the state Department of Health.
He later withdrew the rule amid litigation and legislative action. Most recently, Bailey sued New York State over Trump’s prosecution, arguing that Trump’s conviction constituted election interference.
Richard Serafini, a former federal prosecutor who now runs his own practice, called the lawsuit against New York “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard in legal practice.”
And Lindsay Runnels, an attorney and board member of the Midwest Innocence Project, questioned the fight to release people when judges have already made a decision.
“The system doesn’t work when our highest law enforcement officer in the state disregards the court system and believes he is not accountable to them for his orders and for following those orders,” she said. “That’s insane.”
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Summer Ballentine contributed to this report from Columbia, Missouri. Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
