AUGUSTA (AP) – A lawyer for convicted child murderer Dennis Dechaine plans to file papers Thursday in Superior Court seeking another trial so he can introduce new evidence.

Attorney Steve Peterson said he plans to file a motion in Rockland asking for a new trial based upon DNA testing that was done and any new testing the court would be asked to authorize.

Dechaine is serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder and rape of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry, who was abducted while baby-sitting in her hometown of Bowdoin. Dechaine supporters say he was wrongly convicted and have been pressing for a new trial.

A new post-conviction statute in Maine allows prisoners who want to introduce DNA evidence that they think could exonerate them to do so by Monday.

Dechaine’s attorneys previously asked for a new trial using DNA evidence found under the young victim’s fingernails after Dechaine was convicted. Even though testing shows the DNA belongs to someone other than Dechaine, the request was turned down.

With a change in the law in 2006, prisoners can seek new trials based on technological advances in DNA testing.

“Under the old statute, for all practical purposes we not only had to establish that it was not Dechaine’s DNA under the fingernail clippings but we had to – by clear and convincing evidence – show that it was the DNA of the actual perpetrator which was a burden practically impossible to meet,” Peterson said.

Peterson said he’s hoping to use advances in so-called “touch DNA,” which could open the way for examination of Sarah Cherry’s clothes. Older methods of DNA analysis relied on secretions, hair and fluids.

James Moore, a retired agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who has researched the Dechaine case and written two books on the subject, said he welcomes the new motion but is skeptical that a judge will allow any evidence that would shed light on the identity of a new suspect.