ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore filed a petition Wednesday to vacate the conviction of a man who has spent more than three decades in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

Christopher Dunn, 54, was convicted on July 18, 1991, for the murder of Ricco Rogers.

Rogers, 15, was shot and killed on May 18, 1990, in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood. Investigators believed Rogers was murdered over a gang affiliation.

At the time, Dunn was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and armed criminal action. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Kim Gardner, the former circuit attorney, believed there to be clear and convincing evidence pointing to a wrongful conviction and had asked the St. Louis Circuit Court to overturn the verdict.

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At the time, the trial hinged on the testimony of 12 and 14-year-olds, who later admitted that they were not telling the truth and recanted.

Ultimately, Circuit Attorney Gore said that proved to be enough.

“The eyewitness recantations alone are enough to show clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence in this case,” Gore said. “Justice requires that Christopher Dunn’s murder conviction be vacated.

His predecessor, Gardner, had filed that paperwork in mid-May 2023. Days later, she announced her resignation and left office on May 16. Earlier in the year, Gardner succeeded in getting the courts to re-examine and ultimately vacate Lamar Johnson’s murder conviction. Johnson had been behind bars for 28 years for the 1994 killing of Marcus Boyd.

Shortly after assuming office, Circuit Attorney Gore promised his office would conduct a full review of Dunn’s case before moving forward on anything.

In June 2023, Gore withdrew Gardner’s petition, saying he wanted to conduct his own investigation and review of Dunn’s case. He appointed retired Judge Booker Shaw to assist in the review and advise the circuit attorney on the possibility of withdrawing the case.

Shaw previously served as Chief Judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals’ Eastern District. From 1983 to 2002, he sat on the bench in the St. Louis Circuit Court. Shaw’s legal career began in the circuit attorney’s office.

“My office is indebted to Booker Shaw, whose experience and legal acumen were invaluable in helping conduct an exhaustive review of the facts of the case,” Gore said.

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