Nearly 22 years have passed since Dennis Deschaine was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Sarah Cherry. The Madawaska native is serving a life sentence and has consistently denied having anything to do with murdering the Bowdoin babysitter. Although his bid for a new trial on DNA evidence discovered since his conviction was denied by the courts, a new bill offered by an Aroostook County lawmaker could force a second look at the case, which remains highly controversial in northern Maine.

Dennis Deschaine is a convicted murderer who has proclaimed his innocence for more than 20 years. But he could have a shot at a new trial if a veteran northern Maine lawmaker is successful in getting a bill crafted in Deschaine's behalf through the Legislature.

"To me it's very simple," says state Rep. John Martin. "Let's do the DNA, and once and for all we can arrive at a conclusion that he is either been guilty of the crime, or he's been incarcerated for the wrong reason."

Martin is an Eagle Lake Democrat who has looked out for the interests of the St. John Valley region of Aroostook County for more than 40 years. Sensitive to the significant support network that has taken up Deschaine's case since his 1989 conviction, Martin is sponoring a bill that would require the state to consider DNA evidence gathered after Deschaine was convicted of murdering Sarah Cherry in 1988.

Martin says the judge's decision to reject Deschaine's request for a new trial, based on a discovered fragment of unidentified male DNA found beneath the victim's thumbnail that did not match Deshaine's, seems arbitrary.

"In that case, the judge ruled that since it was prior to '88, you couldn't do a DNA, you couldn't use DNA," Martin says, "Which to me is not proper. I was not involved in that legislation, but as I look at where we are today, I think the time has come to put an end to that issue. Either that he is guilty, or he is innocent. And the only way you're going to find that out is not by judges making rulings on whether or not you can use the DNA because it is after '88 or before '88."

"This bill would create a rebuttable presumption, as I read it, that some form of DNA evidence is from the perpetrator of the crime and that it's admissable at a hearing on a new trial," says former Maine Attorney General Janet Mills.

Mills is now in private practice with Preti-Flaherty in Augusta. Although state prosecutors said they could not comment on Martin's bill because of pending appeal requests by Deschaine, Mills says the measure has some far-reaching implications for existing state's post-conviction law.

"It purports to change the standards for motions for a new trial," Mills says. "To me it's pretty problematic because it is aimed at one particular case. It's pretty hard to generalize by statute what constitutes DNA analysis and DNA evidence, and to give broadly any DNA evidence a rebuttable presumption that it identifies the perpetrator really kind of steps on the toes of the courts to an extraordianry degree, I think, and probably unfairly so."

Martin says he knows there are highly-charged arguments for and against Deschaine's bid for an appeal and he expects considerable opposition to his bill, LD 824.

"Yeah, I think they're going to push because it's going to be like saying, 'Well really, you didn't trust us at the time,'" Martin says. "I'm not there with that. It's not a question of trust or untrust. I'm not going after the attorney general. I'm not going after the defense, I'm not going after the family, I'm not going after, or for, anyone. I just want to say that when it's all over and the DNA has been conducted that we now have someone who committed the crime or someone who didn't."

"No one wants to see a man that was wrongfully accused stay in jail, but at the same time I'm very, very mindful of the family who lost a young lady," says state Sen. Troy Jackson.

Jackson, an Allagash Democrat, is a co-sponsor of Martin's bill, which would affect appeals planned by Deschaine, and others with DNA cases that share similar characterics. He says he knows the case has raised emotions among those who believe the Madwaska native is guilty, and those who do not. But Jackson says that ultimately, lingering doubts that many of his constituents have expressed to him about the case should be resolved.

"I think that people certainly look at it and they might have different opinions but I think everyone wants to know for sure that either the right man is in jail or that we should be allowing an innocent man to go free," Jackson says.

Martin says, if given a chance, his bill will resolve the Decshaine case once and for all.