Trial and Error

Jan 17, 2011

http://www.kjonline.com/opinion/letters/Attorney-general-should-reopen-Dechaine-case-.html

In Colorado’s JonBenet Ramsey murder case, unidentified DNA on her pants eliminated her parents as suspects.

In Maine’s Sarah Cherry case, however, the girl’s pants, along with other evidence, were incinerated by the state after Dennis Dechaine filed an appeal, and the state refuses to act on the possibility that the unidentified male DNA found under Cherry’s thumbnail belongs to the killer.

The testimony of detectives regarding alleged admissions by Dechaine is contradicted by their notes, and two world-renowned forensic pathologists have concluded — as have other experts — that Dechaine could not be the killer.

The same judge who denied Dechaine’s 1989 request for DNA testing is still in charge of the case, and five Democratic attorneys general, perhaps fearful of being accused of being soft on crime, have evidently permitted a psychopathic killer to remain free.

Hopefully, Attorney General William Schneider will demonstrate his independence, intelligence, courage and dedication to the cause of justice by dropping his office’s opposition to a retrial, and, at long last, restore honor to the state of Maine.

William Bunting

Whitefield

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM