Christopjer Dunn ordered freed after 33-year murder conviction overturned

July 22 (UPI) -- A St. Louis judge on Monday ordered the release of man unlawfully convicted 33 years in prison for first-degree murder, two days after a woman walked away from a Missouri prison for serving 43 years for a murder she did not commit.

The Missouri Department of Corrections was ordered to release Christopher Dunn, 52, from its custody at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, which is between St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo.

Judge Jason Sengheiser ruled that the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office made "a clear and convincing showing of 'actual innocence' that undermines the basis for Dunn's conviction."

Sengheiser wrote that no reasonable juror would have voted to convict Dunn as the "only evidence inculpating Dunn has been recanted."

In February, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office filed a petition in an attempt to vacate Dunn's conviction. On July 18, 1991, he was convicted in the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Ricco Rogers on May 18, 1990,

Dunn was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

A 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy later recanted their statements.

In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to rule on Dunn's case after his lawyer asked the court to decide if his incarceration was unconstitutional.

An evidentiary hearing was conducted on May 21 and 22.

"As we begin another wait of indeterminate length, our hearts brim with hope that the truth, which has been brought to light by many brilliant and diligent minds, will finally prevail," according to the Justice for Christopher Dunn websit e.

Lamar Johnson, was released from prison in February 2023 in Missouri after a judge vacated his 1994 murder conviction. Johnson's attorneys filed a wrongful incarceration lawsuit in January against the City of St. Louis and individual police officers who worked or supervised his case.

On Friday , Sandra Hemme, 64, walked away from Chillicothe Correctional Center, which is about 90 miles east of Kansas City, Mo.

Hemme's time is prison was the longest that a wrongfully convicted woman has served in the United States, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

Hemme, a young mentally ill woman, was under the effects of strong prescription drugs when law enforcement investigators questioned her several times about the murder of Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph, Mo.

Many have since concluded a former police officer who died many years ago likely murdered Jeschke.