Missouri Supreme Court orders stay of man's release after vacated murder conviction

The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered that the release of Christopher Dunn from prison be stayed after the state attorney general appealed Dunn's release.

The court decision came hours after Missouri Circuit Court Judge Jason Sengheiser ordered Dunn’s immediate release by 6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET that night in an emergency hearing. Had the warden at South Central Correctional Center not released Dunn by the time ordered, the warden would have had to appear before the court and show why he should not be held in contempt, according to court documents.

“Two courts have now found that no juror would convict Mr. Dunn after reviewing the credible evidence of his innocence,” Dunn’s family told ABC News in a statement. “ And yet, with no remaining conviction, an innocent person remains behind bars. That is not justice.”

“We will continue to pursue every avenue to secure Mr. Dunn’s freedom,” Dunn’s family further told ABC News.

On Monday, Sengheiser vacated the murder conviction of Dunn, who has served 33 years in a Missouri prison for a murder he has maintained he did not commit.

The order followed a hearing two months ago during which Sengheiser heard evidence in favor of Dunn's exoneration, including findings from an evidentiary hearing four years ago in which the presiding judge declared that if Dunn were tried today given the current evidence, "reasonably, properly instructed jurors would find [Dunn] not guilty."

"In conclusion, the only evidence inculpating Dunn has been recanted," court documents of Sengheiser's ruling stated. "The [St. Louis] Circuit Attorney [Gabe Gore] has made a clear and convincing showing of 'actual innocence' that undermines the basis of 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."

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's office appealed the judge's decision to the state Supreme Court, according to court records..

Dunn, 52, was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for a first-degree murder conviction in the death of 15-year-old Rico Rogers, who was shot to death in May 1990.

There is no physical evidence linking Dunn, who was 18 at the time, to Roger's murder. His conviction was based on the testimony of two eyewitnesses who said they saw Dunn nearby just before the shooting. The witnesses – DeMorris Stepp, then 14, and Michael Davis Jr., who was 12 – recanted their testimonies in 2005 and 2015, respectively.

The eyewitnesses said they were coerced by prosecutors and police to testify that Dunn was guilty. The state attorney general's office testified during the hearing, which began May 21, that they never coerced, manipulated or threatened the witnesses.

Defense attorneys for Dunn argued during the hearing that Stepp and Davis' alleged false testimonies were "inconsistent, uncertain and unsure" and made while they were children, and that Stepp and Davis corrected their testimony when they became adults.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore filed the motion to vacate Dunn's murder conviction in February this year. "There remains no evidence upon which a reasonable jury could return a verdict of guilty," Gore said in closing statements during the hearing earlier this year. "In fact your honor, in this case, there simply remains no evidence at all."

Prosecutors from the Missouri Attorney General's office maintained that Dunn was guilty, arguing that regardless of their testimonies, the witnesses were still able to identify Dunn via photo and a live lineup.

This is the second time a judge has heard Dunn's case for exoneration. In a 2020 evidentiary hearing, Texas County Judge William Hickle ruled that given the new evidence, and the recantations of the testimonies, "reasonably, properly instructed jurors would find [Dunn] not guilty."

Still, Dunn was not exonerated on account of a 2016 Missouri Supreme Court ruling that only allowed death row inmates to make a "freestanding" claim of innocence.

In 2021, Missouri adopted a new law that expands the rights of incarcerated persons without death sentences to file for an exoneration. The law allows prosecutors to request hearings to vacate a conviction if they have information that demonstrates that the convicted person is not guilty, or was otherwise wrongfully convicted.

During the May hearing, Dunn's defense attorneys brought up Judge's Hickle's findings in 2020 that Dunn had met the standard for exoneration, and called on Judge Sengheiser to "establish actual innocence and allow you to do what Judge Hickel could not do. Vacate the wrongful conviction of Christopher Dunn."

ABC News' Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.