The case of Christopher Dunn marks the second time Attorney General Andrew Bailey has appealed the swift release of a person whose murder conviction was overturned.
For more than 30 years, Christopher Dunn has been incarcerated in Missouri, accused of a murder he insisted he did not commit. Freedom seemed within his grasp when a circuit judge overturned his conviction and ordered for his release Wednesday — only to be overruled when the state Supreme Court granted the attorney general’s request for a stay.
The legal showdown over Dunn’s release marks the second time in a matter of weeks that Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey has fought a court order to release an inmate who was found to be wrongly convicted.
Last month, Sandra Hemme, 64, the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., had her conviction overturned, only to have Bailey appeal her release, keeping her behind bars. Ultimately, she was released July 19 after a judge threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt of court.
The Missouri judicial system is racist as hell. I can almost guarantee that the person that decided to make those people stay in prison did it because the prisoners were black.
Strangely, it’s not racism. This Attorney General is just notoriously an asshole.
Sandra Hemme, a white woman, was the longest wrongfully incarcerated person, and she recently went through the same issue in Missouri.
I’m sure you’re not wrong about the racism, but his bullshit seems to transcend race.
The answer is almost always incompetence over malice. But as Missourian I can say in this case that there is a heavy dose of both.