All across this country, prisoners who have been falsely convicted dream about being exonerated. That dream sustains them.

While the path to exoneration is not easy even for the innocent, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, that dream has come true for 3,568 people in the past 35 years.

The falsely convicted dream of exoneration because they assume that it will lead to their release from prison, a return to their families, and a life of freedom. That is what should happen, and often does.

But, two Missouri cases remind us that there and elsewhere, being innocent does not necessarily result in freedom.

Just ask Christopher Dunn and Sandra Hemme.

In both cases, Missouri’s Attorney General Andrew Bailey intervened to delay their release even after judges had found them to be the victims of serious miscarriages of justice. They had been exonerated in courts that carefully considered their cases.

But that was not enough for Bailey, who, as the New York Times reported, intervened against the exonerated to help himself in his tough race for reelection. On Tuesday, he won that contested Republican primary.

The Missouri cases should spur reform efforts in that state and elsewhere to prevent prosecutors from following Bailey’s example. Prosecutors who make frivolous claims or keep someone whom the government knows to be innocent behind bars should be disciplined by the state bar authority. And their authority to do so should be curbed by appropriate legislation.

Consider the conduct of Bailey in the case of Christopher Dunn, who was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1990 shooting of 15-year-old Ricco Rogers. As an Associated Press story describes:

Rogers was shot May 18, 1990, when a gunman opened fire while he was with a group of other teenage boys outside a home. DeMorris Stepp, 14, and Michael Davis Jr., 12, both initially identified Dunn as the shooter.

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