A Missouri man was freed in St. Louis on Tuesday after spending 34 years behind bars for a murder conviction that has now been overturned.

A judge ordered last week that the man, Christopher Dunn, 52, be released immediately, but the Missouri attorney general appealed the decision, delaying Mr. Dunn’s exit as a series of legal maneuvers played out.

Speaking on the steps of Carnahan Courthouse in St. Louis on Tuesday after being released, Mr. Dunn told reporters that it was “time to move forward.”

“For those who participated in my prosecution, I forgive you,” said Mr. Dunn, who had been serving a sentence of life without parole. “I’m not going to forget, but I do forgive you. But at the same time, I’ve got to move on with my life too.”

Mr. Dunn was convicted in 1991 in the murder of Ricco Rogers, 15, who was fatally shot in May 1990 while running away from a shooter who had fired at a group he was in as they sat on the porch of a St. Louis home around midnight. Mr. Dunn, who was 19 when he was convicted, was found guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree assault and armed criminal action.

The conviction was based on the testimony of two eyewitnesses, boys who were 12 years old and 14 years old at the time. Both eyewitnesses have since recanted their statements.