Trial and Error

Apr 23, 2010

The Department of Corrections is still investigating the medical emergency two weeks ago.

By Trevor Maxwell 
Staff Writer

Dennis Dechaine is back in the Maine State Prison, after staying at a Portland hospital for more than two weeks with an undisclosed medical condition.

 Select images available for purchase in the Maine Today Photo Store

Corrections Commissioner Martin Magnusson said Thursday that Dechaine was transported to the prison in Warren sometime in the past few days.

Apr 22, 2010

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/dechaine-back-in-prison-after-2-week-hospital-visit_2010-04-22.html Posted: 12:00 AM

PORTLAND — Dennis Dechaine is back in the Maine State Prison after staying at a Portland hospital for more than two weeks with an undisclosed medical condition.

Corrections Commissioner Martin Magnusson said Thursday that Dechaine was transported to the prison in Warren sometime in the past few days.

He would not say whether Dechaine has been returned to his regular housing unit, or if he is staying in the prison infirmary or another special unit.

Dechaine, 52, is one of the state’s best-known prisoners. He is serving a life sentence for the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry in Bowdoin in 1988. He maintains that he is innocent.

Apr 7, 2010

Don Dechaine says he isn’t sure what caused the well-known prisoner’s heart rate and blood pressure to drop on Monday.

PORTLAND — A brother of Dennis Dechaine said Thursday that the well-known prisoner continues to recover at Maine Medical Center, after being found near death Monday morning in his cell at the Maine State Prison in Warren.

Don Dechaine of Madawaska said he intends to visit his brother at Maine Med today. He will be the first family member to see Dennis Dechaine since the emergency.

Don Dechaine said he doesn’t know what caused his brother’s heart rate and blood pressure to plummet.

Apr 7, 2010

Bangor Daily News
Dechaine treated for undisclosed illness
By The Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO Convicted murderer Dennis Dechaine stands by a window in a conference room at the Maine State Prison in Warren, Maine, April 6, 2005. Dechaine was hospitalized for an undisclosed illness.

Apr 4, 2010

Portland Press Herald

By Trevor Maxwell 
Staff Writer

Dennis Dechaine, the one-time farmer from Bowdoinham who is serving a life sentence for the murder of a 12-year-old girl in 1988, has been hospitalized for treatment of an undisclosed medical condition.

Dennis Dechaine

File photo 

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Maine Today Photo Store

Apr 4, 2010

http://www.kjonline.com/opinion/letters/_massive-loophole_-exists-in-freedom-of-access-act_2010-04-02.html

Kennebec Journal

A glaring omission in Judith Meyer’s rosy account of the status of Maine’s Freedom of Access Act (March 30) was the Maine Supreme Court’s divided 2008 ruling regarding then-Attorney General Steve Rowe’s Dechaine commission.

The commission was created and charged in its task by the attorney general, it used state facilities and employees and its findings were announced by the attorney general. In spite of those facts, however, the court ruled that the commission’s records were closed to public scrutiny. Meyer’s own newspaper (Lewiston’s Sun Journal) was highly critical of this decision.

Mar 3, 2010

Lincoln County News
By Lucy L. Martin

Two nationally acclaimed forensic pathologists challenge conclusions that helped convict Dennis Dechaine of the 1988 murder of a 12-year-old Bowdoin girl.

Dechaine’s attorney, Steve Peterson, of Rockport, said this week Dr. Cyril Wecht and Dr. Walter Hofman reviewed the case. They concluded that when the Bowdoinham farmer came out of the woods July 6, 1988 and was taken into police custody about 9 p.m., Sarah Cherry, who had earlier disappeared from the house where she was babysitting, was still alive.

Feb 25, 2010

http://www.kjonline.com/news/dechaine-lawyers-doubt-time-of-victim_s-death_2010-02-24.html

KENNEBEC JOURNAL

25 February 2010

They claim the young girl died after he was in custody

BY TREVOR MAXWELL, Portland Press Herald

Lawyers for Dennis Dechaine said Wednesday that two renowned forensic pathologists have provided opinions that could help Dechaine get a new trial in the murder of a 12-year-old girl more than two decades ago.

Feb 25, 2010

Lawyers for the convicted killer say new opinions on the time of death back his bid for a new trial.

Lawyers for Dennis Dechaine said Wednesday that two renowned forensic pathologists have provided opinions that could help Dechaine get a new trial in the murder of a 12-year-old girl more than two decades ago.

Dr. Cyril Wecht and Dr. Walter Hofman reviewed the case at the request of Steve Peterson, a Rockport lawyer, and F. Lee Bailey, the famed defense attorney who is a consultant to Dechaine.

In their opinions, Wecht and Hofman agreed that Sarah Cherry likely died several hours after Dechaine emerged from the woods in Bowdoinham and was taken into police custody. Dechaine, 52, is serving a life sentence for Cherry’s kidnapping and murder in 1988.

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By Trevor Maxwell 
Staff Writer

Feb 9, 2010

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER)

— Famed criminal defense attorney F. Lee Bailey made name for himself defending high profile clients such as O.J. Simpson and Patty Hearst.  He visited Bangor today to speak with business leaders about a program that helps put inmates to work once they leave prison.

“If he stumbles help pick him up and help give him another chance,” Bailey told business leaders at the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce breakfast.

He added that an inmate soon to be released from the Maine Correctional Facility in Windham would be coming to Bangor looking for a job. That inmate took part in a Workready job training program.

Jul 5, 2009

Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

After reading of the importance of DNA analysis in the recent conviction of Thomas H. Mitchell Jr.

for the 1983 slaying of Judith Flagg, I thought back to my struggle in high school English class to understand the concept of irony. The dictionary was little help. Mine defines irony as “an outcome of events contrary to what was expected; the incongruity of this.”

The Mitchell case offers just what I needed.  First, praise is due Deputy Attorney General William Stokes for bringing “the application of modern DNA technology” (his words) to bear on a 26-year-old case.

Apr 9, 2009

WARREN – Famed defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey met with convicted child killer Dennis Dechaine on Wednesday and agreed to help with his petition for a new trial.

Bailey met Wednesday with Dechaine at the Maine State Prison, where he’s serving a life sentence for the 1988 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry in Bowdoinham.

”He’s basically going to be available as a consultant,” Steve Peterson, Dechaine’s lawyer, said of Bailey.

He said he didn’t envision Bailey playing a role in the courtroom, but that’s subject to change.