Trial and Error

Jun 7, 2012

PORTLAND — Dennis Dechaine’s bid for a new trial hinges on a fragment of DNA from a thumbnail clipping.

At a hearing next week, Dechaine’s court-appointed lawyer will try to convince a judge that the jury would have acquitted Dechaine of the 1988 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry had it known about the DNA.

Dechaine has previously made four unsuccessful appeals, and his lawyer, Steve Peterson, has characterized this effort as Dechaine’s last, best chance.

Dechaine, 54, is serving a life sentence for the crime he says he did not commit. His defense contends that the unidentified male DNA extracted from the nail clipping from Cherry’s body points to the real killer. The state maintains that the thumbnail clipping was likely contaminated and that the DNA is irrelevant.

The scope of the hearing, scheduled to begin Tuesday before Superior Court Justice Carl Bradford, has narrowed since last year.

Bradford, the original trial judge, has denied Peterson’s motion that he recuse himself, as well as another motion to allow time-of-death evidence at the upcoming hearing. Bradford granted a request to run the partial DNA profile from the thumbnail against those in a state database of convicted felons, but that process produced no viable alternate suspects.

“What we’re left with is that the DNA in question does not match my client,” Peterson said.

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By Ann S. Kim
Staff Writer