WATERVILLE – A high-profile legal team that uses DNA evidence to overturn wrongful convictions is considering expanding its role in the effort to free convicted murderer Dennis Dechaine.

Dechaine is serving a life prison sentence for the 1988 slaying of Sarah Cherry, a 12-year-old Bowdoin girl.

His supporters say prosecutors have not considered a blood sample from underneath Cherry’s fingernails that contains the DNA of the victim and another person but not Dechaine’s.

The New York-based Innocence Project, which previously assisted Dechaine’s attorneys, is now considering joining his legal team, said Aliza Kaplan of the nonprofit legal clinic.

The Innocence Project was co-founded by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law. Scheck was part of O.J. Simpson’s legal team.

M. Michaela Murphy, Dechaine’s new lawyer, said Wednesday that she plans to ask a judge to consider the DNA evidence, but first she needs to see the state’s files in Dechaine’s case.

A bill introduced last week by state Sen. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, would force the Attorney General’s Office to release the files. Martin has said that the earliest the files could be released is May.