If you or someone you know needs resources or support related to sexual violence, contact the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s 24/7 hotline at 800-871-7741.
A judge has granted a convicted killer’s request that additional DNA testing be conducted on evidence connected to the murder of a 12-year-old Maine girl in 1988.
Justice Bruce Mallonee granted a motion Friday for further DNA testing requested by attorneys for Dennis Dechaine.
His attorneys argued that the court should allow the testing because of new technology.
Dechaine is serving a life sentence for the murder and sexual assault of Sarah Cherry.
Cherry was kidnapped from a home in Bowdoin while she was babysitting in 1988.
Her body was found days later in the woods. An autopsy ruled she was sexually assaulted, stabbed and strangled.
Dechaine has always maintained his innocence.
In 2015, the state supreme court denied Dechaine’s request for a new trial, concluding that new DNA evidence wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the original trial.