Christopher Dunn spent 34 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned this week. An unusual appeal has delayed his leaving.

Christopher Dunn was steps away from freedom.

He was wearing civilian clothes picked out months before: a sage green button-down, a blazer, and a green and blue tie that brought it all together. He had on real underwear, the kind with an elastic band that he hadn’t worn in 34 years, and had thrown out his prison toothbrush. His wife would be waiting with a new one in the parking lot.

A judge had finally ruled two days earlier what Dunn had always maintained: He was wrongfully convicted of a 1990 murder.

But as the Missouri Department of Correction was finalizing his release papers Wednesday, the warden got the call. The state Supreme Court had halted the release order after the state attorney general appealed to keep Dunn in prison.

“It was probably the highest high and lowest low I can remember in my life,” said Kira Dunn, who had used saved-up airline miles to fly in from California to see her husband’s release. “We were completely stunned.”

“He was literally 50 feet from freedom,” she added.

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