Updated at 7:35 p.m. July 30 with comments from Christopher Dunn as he left a downtown St. Louis courthouse
Christopher Dunn is a free man.
After serving more than 30 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, Dunn walked out of the Carnahan Courthouse in St. Louis on Tuesday — hours after Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore officially dropped the charges against him.
Dressed in a brown blazer and khaki slacks, Dunn walked out of the building and stood on the steps with his hands in his pockets. His wife, Kira Dunn, stood next to him.
Dunn didn't say a word at first and stood silent for a few seconds. Asked by reporters how he felt to be out of prison, he said simply "surreal."
With a smile on his face, Dunn then added: "Thank you, St. Louis, we did it. But it shouldn't have taken so long. Not 34 years. There's not enough words in the dictionary to describe this day right here."
He told reporters that he never gave up because his family never gave up. He thanked his wife for standing with him, and Gore for putting his life and career on the line for him. He also expressed gratitude for his legal team at the Midwest Innocence Project and other attorneys who assisted from New York.
“It’s easy to give up in prison when you lose hope," Dunn said. "But when the system choose[s] to throw you away, you have to ask yourself if you’re willing to just settle for it or you’re going to fight for it. I come from a strong family. I don’t know not how to fight. This is what we have done for the majority of our lives.
"And whether you want to believe it or not, everyone that’s in prison, there’s a chance for everyone. The thing is though, you can’t give up.
“Let their stories be heard,” he said. “Don’t give up on them. Give them a chance.”
Dunn then gave his mother, Martha Dunn, a long embrace before leaving the courthouse.
Dunn was convicted in the 1990 murder of 15-year-old Ricco Rogers in the city's Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood. And his conviction was largely based on the testimony of two boys, ages 12 and 14, who later recanted their statements.
Dunn’s release came hours after the Missouri Supreme Court lifted an emergency order it issued last week that paused a ruling by St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser.
Sengheiser had overturned Dunn’s conviction on July 22 and ordered his immediate release, but the South Central Correctional Center in Licking where Dunn was being held refused to release him, following advice from Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
In a virtual emergency hearing on July 24, Sengheiser gave South Central's warden until 6 p.m. to release Dunn or face being held in contempt. He noted that defiance of a court order would not be tolerated. The high court then put a hold on Sengheiser's ruling after Bailey filed a writ at the last minute that day.
In their opinion, Supreme Court judges wrote that Bailey does not have the authority to hold an inmate in prison. They also wrote that for Dunn to be released, the circuit attorney had to follow proper procedure and drop the charges.
This last week of legal maneuvers has been testing, Dunn said Tuesday.
"To hear the decision of the judge, and then get prepared to leave on [July 24] only to be brought back into the prison, it was torture," Dunn said. "It's something that you shouldn't have to put anyone through, but then again, this is what they do."
Dunn was transported from the South Central Correctional Center in Licking to the St. Louis City Circuit Court in downtown St. Louis' Carnahan Courthouse late Tuesday afternoon.
The fight for his freedom has been going on for years.
In 2020, Circuit Court Judge William Hickle found that a jury would likely find Dunn not guilty based on new evidence, but the judge declined to order Dunn’s release citing a 2016 Missouri Supreme Court ruling that only people on death row can make a freestanding claim of actual innocence.
A new state law took effect in 2021 that allows prosecutors to file petitions when they believe an innocent person is imprisoned. Gore asked the court in February to vacate Dunn’s conviction, which ultimately led to Sengheiser overturning the sentence last week due to a lack of evidence.
Bailey similarly fought against the release of Sandra Hemme, who spent 43 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a St. Joseph, Mo., woman in 1980. The judge in that case cited evidence of "actual innocence" on June 14 and ordered her release. Bailey's appeals all the way to the state supreme court kept her imprisoned at the Chillicothe Correctional Center until July 19.
Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director at the Midwest Innocence Project, said Dunn's lawyers are thrilled that he is reunited with his family after serving so much time for a crime he didn’t commit.
“We look forward to supporting Chris as he rebuilds his life,” Bushnell said. “But our joy in welcoming Chris home is tempered by the additional days and moments stolen from him by this week’s proceedings. We are grateful for the outpouring of support from all corners of the country over the past few days. As we all observed, that was not justice.”
Before the state supreme court issued their opinion, the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP, along with other civil rights advocates, stood outside Bailey’s St. Louis office Tuesday morning demanding that he stop blocking Dunn’s freedom.
Dunn said although he's lost his youth and have gone through a number of medical issues while in prison, he's ready to live his life. He said he's looking forward to attending baseball games at Busch Stadium.
"If I hold onto the negativity, if I keep on holding onto the past, I will never be able to move forward," Dunn said. "For those who participated in my prosecution, I forgive you. I'm not gone forget, but I forgive you."
