ST. LOUIS — Christopher Dunn was set to be released on July 24 after 34 years of imprisonment for a crime he didn’t commit after a St. Louis judge overturned his case.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey immediately appealed Dunn’s release and the state Department of Corrections continues to keep him behind bars.
The Missouri State Conference of the NAACP and the St. Louis City NAACP hosted a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday followed by a rally on Olive Street in St. Louis.
Activists and clergy groups gathered at the conference to advocate for Dunn’s immediate release.
“Even as we wait, we know that Christopher Dunn has been adjudicated to be innocent and cannot be held as a free person in prison, let alone on the ‘say-so’ of Attorney General Bailey,” said the President of the Missouri state conference of NAACP Nimrod Chapel at the press conference.
Chairperson of the St. Louis Detention Facility Oversight Board, Reverend Daryll Gray, condemned Bailey for his action.
“Enough is enough," The stress, the anguish, the pain that Andrew Bailey is causing the dunn family for political points is inexcusable. It’s atrocious, it's unbelievable in this day and time,”
Jamala Rogers, a member of the organization of black struggles, said she’s contacted Dunn who is asking the public to put pressure on Bailey’s office.
“This is a hardship on this family that doesn’t need to happen. But he hasn’t given up faith because he’s looking at all of us advocating for him,” said Rogers.
Chapel said he and the St. Louis City NAACP are working nationally with a group of lawyers to see if they can get the federal government involved in the case.
