Missouri Man’s 33-year Fight for Freedom: Wrongful Conviction Hearing Underway

A wrongful conviction hearing for a Missouri man who has spent 33 years in jail for a murder he alleges he did not commit is currently underway. Now his wife has expressed her hopes for the outcome.

Christopher Dunn, 52, received a life sentence without parole for first-degree murder in the killing of Rico Rogers, a 15-year-old who was shot in May 1990.

According to Dunn’s lawyers, there is no physical evidence linking him to the crime. He was 18 years old at the time. His conviction was predicated on the evidence of two eyewitnesses, aged 12 and 14, who claimed they saw Dunn nearby moments before the shots were fired.

The two witnesses, DeMorris Stepp and Michael Davis Jr. recanted their statements in 2005 and 2015, respectively, claiming they were pressured by prosecutors and police. The state attorney general’s office stated that detectives and prosecutors testified that they never threatened, forced, or altered witnesses’ testimony.

Kira Dunn, Christopher Dunn’s wife, who met him when she was assigned to write an article about him and later married him in a prison ceremony, spoke with ABC News Live Prime’s Linsey Davis about how she and Dunn’s family have been battling for his release for years.

“We’re allowing ourselves some joy here and there,” Kira Dunn explained. “But we know from experience, as you’ve noted, that that rug can be snatched out so quickly, so we’re afraid to be too hopeful or too happy yet.” During the hearing, which began on Tuesday, May 21, Dunn’s defense attorneys contended that the testimony of Stepp and Davis was “inconsistent, uncertain, and unsure.”

Prosecutors from the Missouri Attorney General’s office maintained that Dunn was guilty, claiming that witnesses who later recanted their testimony were still able to identify him through a photo and live lineup.

“Both witnesses and their separate photo array identifications select a picture of Christopher Dunn and say, ‘This is Christopher Dunn,'” prosecutors stated. “‘This is who did it,’ 24 hours later, after Dunn had been arrested.”

Gabe Gore, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney, filed a motion to dismiss Dunn’s murder conviction in February.

This is the second time a judge has heard Dunn’s exoneration claim. Judge William Hickle found at a 2020 evidentiary hearing in Texas County that “new evidence has emerged, in addition to the recantations, which make it likely that reasonably, properly instructed jurors would find [Dunn] not guilty.” Dunn was not exonerated because the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that death row convicts could only establish a “freestanding” claim of innocence.

Then, in 2021, Missouri passed new legislation allowing prosecutors to request hearings to vacate convictions if they have evidence that the condemned person is innocent or was unfairly convicted. This allows inmates who do not receive death sentences to file for exonerations.

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“Missouri is the only state in the United States where that would be the case, where innocence claims are based on your sentence whether you’re released or not,” Kira Dunn stated to Linsey Davis. “But it feels different this time. It appears that we now have so many excellent minds working with us, as well as advocates, that our chances of success are significantly higher.

In his current hearing, Dunn’s defense attorneys referred to Judge Hickle’s findings that Dunn fulfilled the criteria for real innocence and asked Judge Jason Sengheiser, who presided over the hearing, to “establish actual innocence and allow you to do what Judge Hickle could not do.” “Vacate Christopher Dunn’s wrongful conviction.”

Dunn, who has maintained his innocence from the outset, believes the time for exoneration is short. “Are you concerned that you might die before being able to be vindicated?” Davis asked Dunn in 2022.

“To be honest with you, yeah,” Dunn replied. “After that, the truth of what happened to me may never be known.”