Trial and Error

Jun 12, 2012

Twenty-three years after he began serving a life sentence for the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry of Bowdoin, Dennis Dechaine was back in court today seeking a new trial. Dechaine has had several previous unsuccessful appeals. But even before his 1989 trial, Dechaine and his attorney argued for DNA testing, saying it could help clear his name. And now they must convince a judge that what DNA evidence currently exists would have been enough to change jurors’ minds had they considered it at the time.

Few Maine murder trials have been as well-publicized, or attracted as large a following, as Dennis Dechaine’s. The crime was horrific: a 12-year-old girl abducted from her first babysitting job in rural Bowdoin, eventually found tortured and strangled in the woods about three miles away.

Dennis Dechaine, a 30-year-old farmer, immediately became the prime suspect. A notebook and receipt with his name on it were found in the driveway of the house where Cherry had been working. Dechaine’s truck was found several hundred feet from her body. Rope used to bind her wrists was consistent with rope found in his truck and at his farm.

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Reported By: Susan Sharon of MPBN