You’re invited to a birthday party in Augusta. For a convicted murderer.
No surprise to see people picketing and petitioning at the Capitol on the Friday before the election to end all elections. But this?
“The timing couldn’t be worse in many ways,” said Bill Bunting of Trial and Error, a group that hopes to exonerate Bowdoinham farmer Dennis Dechaine for the July 1988 kidnapping, torture and killing of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry.
State legislators aren’t even in session. And many minds are on the presidential election and the property tax-cap referendum, so there’s no telling who’ll pay attention.
But it’s Dechaine’s birthday, so supporters will enjoy a first-of-its-kind celebration at the State House.
Bizarre, yes. Productive, maybe.
Dechaine, who’s serving a life sentence at Maine State Prison, turns 47 on Friday.
Trial and Error will mark the occasion with a rally at the Hall of Flags from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The members hope to present 5,000 signatures to Gov. John Baldacci, Attorney General Steven Rowe, or a representative of the two men.
Reopen the case
“Citizens have a right to petition their government. This petition calls for a complete investigation of the case,” said Trial and Error public relations director Morrison Bonpasse.
Activists meet monthly in local chapters from Canada to Florida. They charge that authorities concealed scientific evidence prior to Dechaine’s trial in March 1989 and say he took the fall for a tiny community shaken to its core by a grisly crime.
Author and retired U.S. Treasury agent James Moore’s private investigation resulted in his 2002 book, “Human Sacrifice,” which gave Trial and Error a boost.
Several years earlier, Moore had seen a newspaper article about a seminar that promised him comic relief, if nothing else.
“I thought I’d go listen to (Trial and Error) trash law enforcement for a couple hours,” Moore said. “I attended the meeting believing the cops had done their job and came away still certain that Dennis Dechaine was guilty.
“But they were nice people, these poor, deluded souls. So I said, I’ll look into it for you.’ My scheme was to disprove their crap. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”
In his 400-page expository, Moore recounts details of the police investigation, the trial and his own research. He alleges that police failed to thoroughly investigate at least three other men who had an opportunity or a motive to kill Cherry.
Moore also alleges that forensic evidence placed the girl’s death at a time when Dechaine already was in police custody or under close surveillance.
“Science doesn’t give a damn who wins. And witnesses, hey, I know about witnesses,” Moore said. “Some mean well. Others lie.”
Cake and photos
Circumstantial evidence remains damning. Dechaine and his truck were found in the same woods where Cherry’s body was discovered two days after her disappearance. Both a receipt and a notebook bearing Dechaine’s name turned up in the driveway of the home where the abduction occurred.
After he admitted using liquid amphetamines that day, Dechaine made other statements that were construed as confessions to the killing.
Still, defenders gain converts by the dozens each year. Bunting himself didn’t believe until he read Moore’s work, but now says he has “no doubt” of Dechaine’s innocence.
“Since then, I’ve visited Dennis in prison about 60 times, two hours each,” Bunting said. “I feel like I know him better than my own brother.”
Friday’s rally includes plans for a conference call with Dechaine. There will be a huge birthday cake and a life-size photo for people who want to have their picture taken “with” the guest of honor.
Bunting admits that some of those over-the-top touches are a gamble.
“Tone is important. You risk looking like a bunch of idiots,” he said. “But there’s nothing we can do except stay in the public eye. I’ve learned that we don’t have many leaders in the Legislature. We have followers. And they’ll follow public opinion.”
Kalle Oakes is the Sun Journal’s staff columnist. His e-mail is koakes@sunjournal.com.
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