Donations can also be mailed to: Trial and Error PO Box 153 Madawaska, Maine 04756

Trial and Error hopes to raise at least $50,000 to defray all the further costs associated with an analysis by experts of this latest round of DNA testing, the result of which could be a retrial, Dennis’s exoneration of the 1988 crime, and his release from Maine State Prison. Current funds available for experts  35,445.75 Still to be paid for: legal/DNA experts—their travel to, overnight accommodation, and testimony for a motion for a retrial or the resulting retrial itself. John Nale and Stuart Tisdale are working for Dennis pro bono. Dennis himself has pledged an additional $5,000 to Trial and Error’s donation total.

You may have noticed that the GO FUND ME was shut down because they do not support convictions or legal issues. 

So please share the new new link to all your contacts.

To all of you who sent donations through GFM, you can now process with Pay Pal.

Thank You all so very much for all your support. Let's keep it goin!!!!

Continuing to fight for justice

Thirty-four years of fighting a wrongful conviction suggests that Maine does not have a functional “justice system.”  Instead, we suffer a flawed legal system.

What kind of legal system allows a prosecutor to argue successfully against DNA testing of any crime scene evidence prior to trial?  What kind of system allows a prosecutor to order the incineration of an abundance of crime scene evidence not introduced at trial?  What kind of system allows a prosecutor to argue against DNA testing thumbnail scrapings, then chastises a defense attorney who has the testing done anyway?  What kind of system refuses to allow the testimony of experts to establish an exculpatory time of death?

The latest development in the murder case offers further proof, as though any more were needed, that our state's criminal justice system is broken.

By Jeffrey Evangelos Special to the Telegram

Jordan Andrews’ startling report in last week’s Maine Sunday Telegram, revealing that the latest DNA technology has excluded Dennis Dechaine from critical crime scene evidence, not only bolsters Dechaine’s longstanding claim of innocence but raises serious questions about the continuing misconduct and obstruction of justice in the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

July 22, 2022 - Maine Superior Court Judge Bruce Mallonee has approved the request for the use of advanced DNA technology to test evidence from the crime scene and in the State’s possession. 

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Despite his reference (in graf 2, line 2) to Dennis’s “confession” to the crime, that there is no proof that Dennis ever confessed to anyone.

Accumulating evidence in Dechaine murder case raises questions

Getting this evidence admitted is another story

By Jordan Bailey | Courier Publications | Jul 14, 2016

This is the first of a three-part series. Part 2 will look at the legal options available in this case. In Part 3, we will publish an interview with Dennis Dechaine himself.

In perhaps the most notorious criminal case in Maine history, then-31-year-old Bowdoinham farmer Dennis Dechaine was convicted in 1989 of the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry of Bowdoin.