Re: “Federal court rejects final appeal of Dennis Dechaine’s murder conviction” (Oct. 4):

Contrary to assertions made by the Maine Attorney General’s Office, there is no proof that Dennis Dechaine ever confessed, and strong evidence that police lied when they testified that he had. And there is no proof that he told anybody where the body was.

We know that the 1st Circuit Court rejected Dechaine’s application for a second successive habeas appeal on procedural grounds. But contrary to the statement from the Attorney General’s Office, there is no certainty that they considered the merits of the evidence and arguments presented by Dechaine.

Contrary to what was stated in the story, Dechaine has not exhausted all his paths to a retrial, although most have now been blocked by the opposition of the state and by rulings of Justice Carl Bradford, who denied Dechaine’s request for DNA testing in 1989, when there would have been fresh DNA to test.

More recently, Bradford ruled against allowing the testimony of Dr. Cyril Wecht, the world-famous forensic pathologist, who found that time of death evidence destroyed the state’s theory of the crime.

The story refers to “a Brunswick man” who wrote a book about the case. In fact, retired federal agent James Moore intended to prove Dechaine guilty, spent 10 years investigating the case and concluded in his book “Human Sacrifice” that Dechaine did not kill Sarah Cherry.

There are also several likely alternative suspects.

Copy the Story Link