Motion seeks DNA tests in Dechaine murder case

ROCKLAND – A motion was filed Friday asking for DNA testing of items in the 1989 murder case against a Bowdoinham farmer convicted of murdering a 12-year-old girl.

The motion, filed in Knox County Superior Court in Rockland, asks for a new trial for Dennis Dechaine, who is serving a life sentence for the 1988 slaying of Sarah Cherry of Bowdoin. She had been strangled, stabbed and raped with sticks.

Michaela Murphy, a Waterville attorney who represents Dechaine, said the motion asks for DNA testing of blood found under Cherry’s fingernails, articles of clothing, the rope that she was bound with, and other items.

Murphy said she is seeking a new trial for Dechaine based on information about an alternative suspect in the murder. She said that during Dechaine’s trial, prosecutors had information about an alternative suspect that they did not share with defense attorneys.

William Stokes, Maine’s deputy attorney general, has agreed to the DNA tests, but has said the tests don’t make the other evidence go away. During the initial investigation, police found papers bearing Dechaine’s name outside the house where Cherry was last seen alive. Her body was bound with rope cut from a length in his truck, which had been spotted parked across the street from where her body was found.

Dechaine’s case is receiving assistance from the Innocence Project, a national group founded by Barry Scheck, a member of the O.J. Simpson “Dream Team.” The Innocence Project has used DNA evidence to free 125 wrongly convicted people around the country.

During Dechaine’s trial, the judge denied a motion for DNA testing of Cherry’s thumbnails. At that point, DNA tests had never been used as evidence in a U.S. criminal trial. A law enacted two years ago allows people serving sentences of more than 20 years to use DNA evidence as the basis for requesting a trial.