ST. LOUIS — The Supreme Court of Missouri on Wednesday granted Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's request to stay Christopher Dunn's release from prison.
It comes hours after a judge told a Missouri prison warden to release Dunn from custody or face consequences, after the prison ignored a court order to release Dunn after his conviction was overturned earlier this week.
In a swift hearing Wednesday afternoon, St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser ordered for Dunn to be released by 6 p.m., or the warden of the state prison in Licking, Missouri, would be found in contempt of court.
Now under the emergency stay, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed Dunn would not be released Wednesday.
The motion filed by the attorney general's office claimed the circuit court held the hearing "with less than one hour's notice to the state."
According to the state Supreme Court, Sengheiser has until 5 p.m. Friday to file suggestions in opposition to Bailey's writ; Bailey then has until 5 p.m. Monday to file suggestions in reply.
“Throughout the appeals process, multiple courts have affirmed Christopher Dunn’s murder conviction," Bailey's office said in a Thursday statement. "We will always fight for the rule of law and to obtain justice for victims.”
Dunn's legal team said in a statement, "Two courts have now found that no juror would convict Mr. Dunn after reviewing the credible evidence of his innocence," Dunn's legal team said 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.”
"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 5 On Your Side. "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."
Sengheiser on Monday tossed out Dunn's conviction for a 1990 killing. Dunn, 52, has spent 34 years behind bars, and he remained Tuesday at the state prison in Licking. “The State of Missouri shall immediately discharge Christopher Dunn from its custody,” Sengheiser's ruling states.
Dunn wasn't released after his conviction was overturned because Bailey appealed the judge's ruling, “and we're awaiting the outcome of that legal action,” Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said in an email Tuesday.
The decision to keep Dunn incarcerated puzzled St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore, whose office investigated his case and determined he was wrongfully convicted, prompting a May hearing before Sengheiser.
“In our view, the judge’s order was very clear, ordering his immediate release,” St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore said at a news conference Tuesday. “Based on that, we are considering what approach and what legal options we have to obtain Mr. Dunn’s relief.” He declined to specify what legal options were under consideration.
It was the second time in weeks a Missouri prison had ignored an order to release a wrongly convicted inmate.
Dunn's situation is similar to what happened to Sandra Hemme, 64, who spent 43 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a woman in St. Joseph in 1980. On June 14, a judge cited evidence of “actual innocence” and overturned her conviction. She had been the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to the Midwest Innocence Project, which worked to free Hemme and Dunn.
However, appeals by Bailey — all the way up to the Missouri Supreme Court — kept Hemme imprisoned at the Chillicothe Correctional Center. During a court hearing Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman said if Hemme wasn’t released within hours, Bailey himself would have to appear in court with contempt of court on the table. She was released later that day.
The judge also scolded Bailey’s office for calling the Chillicothe warden and telling prison officials not to release Hemme after he ordered her to be freed on her own recognizance. It wasn’t clear if the attorney general’s office similarly called prison officials at the prison where Dunn is housed.