PORTLAND, Maine — A lawyer representing Dennis Dechaine filed a memo in Knox County Superior Court this week in an effort to grant his client a new trial. Dechaine was convicted of murder in connection with Sarah Cherry's death in 1988 and has since been serving a life sentence.
Attorney John Nale is asking the court to grant his client an evidentiary hearing after getting back the results of a new DNA test.
According to Nale and court documents obtained by the VillageSoup, the DNA evidence shows the blood underneath Cherry's fingernails belongs to an unknown male, not Dechaine.
In the court filing, Nale said his client maintains his innocence due to the alleged lack of DNA evidence and lack of all other physical trace evidence. Nale said he hopes the evidence will pursue a judge to order a hearing which could lead to a new trial.
The court documents show Nale and Dechaine are prepared to call witnesses who can give testimony to back his claims of innocence.
In November 2022, Nale announced this DNA testing would take place in a lab in California. In response, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said that new DNA testing hasn't shaken his confidence in his conviction. Frey said in November the DNA evidence is “only a small part of the substantial evidence.”
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court denied three previous requests for a new trial. In the latest, the court concluded that additional DNA testing that showed Dechaine’s DNA was not under the victim's fingernail wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the original trial.
Nale said the court has 30 days to respond to his court filing.
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