ROCKLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine man convicted of killing a 12-year-old girl more than three decades ago launched his latest bid on Thursday for a new trial by trying to convince a judge that advances in DNA testing raise questions about his guilt.
The attorney for Dennis Dechaine called his first witness at the start of a two-day hearing in Knox County Superior Court. Dechaine is trying to make the case that tests conducted by a California laboratory excluded his DNA from several items found at the crime scene, requiring a new trial in which jurors could weigh all the evidence.
Prosecutors have contended plenty of other evidence links Dechaine to the crime and that his DNA could not be excluded from several other items.
Dechaine, 66, is serving a life sentence for the murder and sexual assault of Sarah Cherry, who disappeared while babysitting in Bowdoin in July 1988. Her body was found two days later.
VOX POPULI: The special charm of Gaudi’s unfinished work: Sagrada Familia
110,000 people to evacuate as floods swamp Russia, Kazakhstan
Nevada Supreme Court rulings hand setbacks to gun
Phoenix make history as Surman delivers at the death
Prisoner and corrections officers take refuge in van after shots fired
Publican pleads guilty to stealing $180,000 in grant funding
John Adams' Nativity oratorio 'El Nino' gets colorful staging at the Met
How a barber helped change the views of a bigoted client
The Titans go into the NFL draft flexible at No. 7 with lots of needs to fill
Free pig with your house: Baffling promotion to get through China's real estate slump