Dennis Dechaine, the man serving a life sentence for murder in the death of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry in 1988, is due on court June 19 on a charge of possessing drugs in prison.

A panel of 12 jurors and two alternates was selected on Friday that will hear the case against Dechaine, said Geoffrey Rushlau, Knox County’s district attorney. Dechaine is charged with trafficking in prison contraband after he was allegedly found with morphine and the anti-anxiety drug Klonopin.

Dechaine has pleaded not guilty to the drug possession charge. He says he used the drugs in a suicide attempt April 4, 2010.

Dechaine also insists he did not kill Cherry and hopes that DNA form an unknown male found under one of the girl’s fingernails will help him win a new trial.

At a hearing Tuesday, Dechaine’s court-appointed lawyer will try to convince a judge that the jury would have acquitted Dechaine if it had been given the DNA evidence. Dechaine has previously made four unsuccessful appeals.

Sarah Cherry was abducted from a baby-sitting job in the town of Bowdoin on July 6, 1988. A search for her and Dechaine, then a 30-year-old farmer from Bowdoinham, began after a notebook and a truck repair bill with Dechaine’s name were found in the driveway of the home.

About five hours later, Dechaine was seen walking out of the woods about three miles away. Police found his pickup truck on a nearby discontinued logging road later that night.

The girl’s body was found two days later, about 450 feet from where Dechaine’s truck had been. Her hands were bound in front of her, a gag was in her mouth and a scarf was wrapped around her mouth and neck.

Dechaine said he went into the woods to inject ”speed” and was alone and lost. He maintains that someone took his papers, the rope that was used to tie the girl’s wrists and the scarf from his truck.