Trial and Error

Nov 9, 2013

From the Kennebec Journal

A judge must decide if the Maine man convicted of murdering 12-year-old Sarah Cherry in 1988 gets a new trial.

The legal fate of Dennis Dechaine now rests, as it has for 25 years, in the hands of Superior Court Justice Carl Bradford.

Bradford, 80, retired in 1998 but is still an active judge and is called upon to preside over certain cases, including that of Dechaine, whom Bradford sent to prison for life in 1989.

On Thursday and Friday in a Portland courtroom, Bradford listened to testimony from DNA experts. He now awaits written arguments from the defense and prosecution before he determines whether Dechaine is granted a new trial.

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Nov. 8, 2013…

By Eric Russell
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald