ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court has blocked the immediate release of Christopher Dunn, whose murder conviction was overturned Monday.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said Dunn was signing paperwork to be released when the Missouri Supreme Court issued a stay, blocking his freedom.

Earlier today, Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser ordered Dunn, who has been in prison for 33 years, to be released by 6 p.m. from the prison in Licking, Mo. He called an emergency hearing after the Missouri prison ignored Monday's court order.

A court filing said an attorney for the Department of Corrections told a lawyer in St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore's office that Bailey advised the agency not to release Dunn until the appeal plays out. When told it was improper to ignore a court order, the Department of Corrections attorney “responded that the Attorney General's Office is legal counsel to the DOC and the DOC would be following the advice of counsel.”

Earlier Wednesday, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore filed a motion urging the judge to immediately order Dunn's freedom.

“The Attorney General cannot unilaterally decide to ignore this Court’s Order,” Gore wrote.

Later Wednesday afternoon, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the state's high court to block Dunn's release, a request it granted.

Spectrum News was outside the prison Wednesday evening and talked to Kira Dunn moments after learning the news she wouldn't be taking her husband home that evening. 

"I am so confused right now," Dunn said. "My husband had an interview awhile ago He said 'I am still waiting to know what justice looks like in Missouri' and I thought we knew today, I thought we really caught a glimpse of it after 34 years... no." 

The warden let Dunn see her husband. She says he was wearing civilian clothing for the first time in decades and was ready to be reunited with his family when he had that dashed from him. 

"I told him, you are coming home. It may not be tonight and that is a shame," said Dunn.

Justin Bonus, Christopher Dunn's attorney called what's going on a civil rights violation and that his client is basically being held hostage. 

“The process worked. He’s been found innocent by two judges. He’s been found innocent by the circuit attorney who reinvestigated. He did his job. What’s the problem?” questioned Bonus.

Christopher Dunn’s situation is similar to what happened to Sandra Hemme.

The 64-year-old woman spent 43 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a woman in St. Joseph in 1980. A judge on June 14 cited evidence of “actual innocence” and overturned her conviction. She had been the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to the Midwest Innocence Project, which worked to free Hemme and Dunn.

But appeals by Bailey — all the way up to the Missouri Supreme Court — kept Hemme imprisoned at the Chillicothe Correctional Center. During a court hearing Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman said that if Hemme wasn’t released within hours, Bailey himself would have to appear in court with contempt of court on the table. She was released later that day.

The judge also scolded Bailey’s office for calling the Chillicothe warden and telling prison officials not to release Hemme after he ordered her to be freed on her own recognizance.

Dunn was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1990 shooting of 15-year-old Ricco Rogers. Gore's office examined the case and filed a motion in February seeking to vacate the guilty verdict.

After weighing the case for nearly two months, Sengheiser issued a ruling that cited “a clear and convincing showing of ‘actual innocence’ that undermines the basis for Dunn’s convictions because in light of new evidence, no juror, acting reasonably, would have voted to find Dunn guilty of these crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Lawyers for Bailey’s office said at the hearing that initial testimony from two boys at the scene who identified Dunn as the shooter was correct, even though they recanted as adults.

A Missouri law adopted in 2021 lets prosecutors request hearings when they see evidence of a wrongful conviction. Although Bailey’s office is not required to oppose such efforts, he also did so at a hearing for Lamar Johnson, who spent 28 years in prison for murder. Another St. Louis judge ruled in February 2023 that Johnson was wrongfully convicted, and he was freed.

Another hearing begins Aug. 21 for death row inmate Marcellus Williams. Bailey’s office is opposing the challenge to Williams’ conviction, too. Timing is of the essence: Williams is scheduled to be executed Sept. 24.

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion in January to vacate the conviction of Williams for the fatal stabbing of Lisha Gayle in 1998. Bell’s motion said three experts determined that Williams’ DNA was not on the handle of the butcher knife used in the killing.