PORTLAND – Lawyers for convicted murderer Dennis Dechaine abruptly withdrew his motion for a new trial on Friday, saying the state law that allows for a post-conviction review of DNA evidence sets an unfair burden on defendants.
Dechaine’s lawyers said they would go back to the Maine Legislature and seek to amend the law before refiling the motion for a new trial.
For Dechaine, it means he’ll have to wait at least “a couple of years” for his next day in court, said defense lawyer Michaela Murphy.
Bill Stokes, who leads the attorney general’s criminal division, said the motion for a new trial should be dismissed altogether, saying it was unfair to put the family of the 12-year-old victim through additional years of emotional turmoil.
“At some point there has to be finality,” Stokes said.
Dechaine, 47, is serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder and sexual assault of Sarah Cherry, who was abducted while baby-sitting in Bowdoin.
Justice Carl Bradford limited Friday’s hearing in Cumberland County Superior Court to DNA evidence that was not available when the case went to trial, rejecting his lawyers’ request to discuss among other things an alternative suspect.
Tests of blood found under one of the victim’s fingernails showed the presence of male DNA from someone other than Dechaine.
To win a new trial, Dechaine’s lawyers were required to provide convincing evidence that DNA came from her killer, that the evidence was properly handled and that it outweighed all of the other evidence that led to his conviction.
Dechaine’s lawyers said those stipulations were unconstitutional because they required them to prove that someone else committed the crime. Stokes said the defense team simply came to court ill prepared to make its case.
If Dechaine lost, then his only recourse would be to the state supreme court. In the end, the lawyers opted to go back to the Legislature.
“As defense lawyers, we can’t let our client walk into a buzz saw,” Murphy said. “This is Mr. Dechaine’s last forum and we couldn’t allow it to be a charade.”
Sarah Cherry disappeared on July 6, 1988, from a home where she was baby-sitting. Her body was found days later. She had been raped with sticks, strangled with a scarf and stabbed repeatedly with a small blade in the head, neck and chest.
Dechaine wandered out of the woods near where Cherry’s body was eventually found. A car repair bill bearing Dechaine’s name was found outside the home where Cherry disappeared, and rope used to bind her matched rope from his truck and barn. Dechaine told police he had been fishing but later admitted he had been injecting speed.
Police say Dechaine confessed to the crime, but his supporters say there was no confession and have alleged police misconduct. They say all the evidence was planted to divert attention from the real killer.
Before the hearing, family and friends of the victim’s family, many wearing crocheted angels featuring a small picture of the young victim, stood uneasily next to members of Trial and Error, a group that maintains Dechaine’s innocence.
“This is ridiculous. You have a convicted murderer, molester, rapist, and he has a fan club,” said Howard Klerk of Richmond, part of a contingent from Parents of Murdered Children that came to support the Cherry family.
Trial and Error, which has been criticized in the past for being insensitive to the Cherry family, fell silent in the days leading up to the hearing. Members declined to talk to the media, and the group even took down its Web site briefly.
A man who met Dechaine at the old Maine State Prison in Thomaston and became friends with him spoke on his friend’s behalf.
Dale Preston, who served 18 years for murder, said he is convinced of Dechaine’s innocence. At the very least, he said, the state should allow another trial.
“The possibility of a mistake is real,” said Preston, who’s not affiliated with Trial and Error. “You need to give this case another look.
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