Black leaders in St. Louis say politics and racism are keeping wrongly convicted man behind bars

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Leaders of the Missouri NAACP and other organizations said Tuesday that politics and racism are behind the state attorney general’s effort to keep Christopher Dunn behind bars, more than a week after a judge overturned his murder conviction from 34 years ago.

State NAACP President Nimrod Chapel Jr. said at a news conference that Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey “superseded his jurisdiction and authority” in appealing Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser’s July 21 ruling. Sengheiser not only tossed out the decadesold conviction, citing evidence of “actual innocence,” but ordered the state to immediately release Dunn.

But when Bailey appealed, the Missouri Department of Corrections refused to release Dunn until the case played out. It is now in the hands of the Missouri Supreme Court. It’s uncertain when the court will rule, or when Dunn, 52, will be freed.

Another speaker at the news conference, the Rev. Darryl Gray, accused Bailey of “political posturing and political grandstanding” ahead of the Aug. 6 Republican primary, where he faces opposition from Will Scharf, an attorney for former President Donald Trump.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-parsely-url=«https%3A%2F%2Fapi.parsely.com%2Fv2%2Frelated%3Fapikey%3Dapnews.com%26url%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fmissouri-case-conviction-overturned-christopher-dunn-f128653d7b67aa4099faa91d0fcba31c%26limit%3D9%26respect_empty_results%3D1%26sort%3D_score%26pub_date_start%3D2024-06-15%26exclude%3Dsection%3APress%20Releases%26exclude%3Dtags%3ACelebrity%20Birthdays» data-parsely-title=«Related Stories» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»>