Opinion ID: 2818724
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Pre-Trial Motion To Obtain DNA Evidence

Text: On January 26, 1989[,] Dechaine, through counsel Thomas J. Connolly, filed a motion for a continuance and permission to conduct DNA testing, then “a radical and new technique,” on fingernail clippings taken from Cherry’s body. The court promptly scheduled a hearing at which Judith Brinkman, a forensic chemist with the Maine State Police Crime Lab, testified and explained the forensic significance of DNA testing. Brinkman testified that in contrast to traditional serological testing methods, DNA “should be like a fingerprint, much more discriminating from one person compared to another except for in identical twins because identical twins have the exact same DNA.” There were three methods of DNA testing; the method that Connolly proposed to use was known as “polymerase chain reaction,” or “PCR,” then conducted only by one laboratory in California (which had a three- to four-month backlog) and in the “research stages” at the FBI laboratory. Brinkman testified that she had been provided with ten fingernail clippings obtained during Cherry’s autopsy and had used up eight of them (all but the thumbnails) to perform blood-typing tests. The blood adhering to the nails was found to be human blood containing A and H antigens, consistent with type A blood but also possibly resulting from a mixture of bloods of type A and/or type O. The blood on the nails could not have been contributed by someone with type AB or B blood; however, that ruled out a relatively small percentage of the population inasmuch as persons with type A blood 1 Magistrate Judge Cohen’s recommended decision includes complete record citations for each of the facts he recited, which, because they are readily obtainable, we have omitted for the ease of the reader. 4 comprised forty-one percent of the population and persons with type O forty-five percent. Brinkman had tested the whole blood of both Dechaine and Cherry, determining that of Dechaine to be type O and that of Cherry to be type A. She theorized that the blood on the nails was solely that of Cherry, noting that Cherry’s hands were found bound and positioned near her neck, which had been bleeding. She further explained, “There was nothing that led me to believe that there was a mixture [of bloods]. If someone had scratched someone hard enough to make them bleed and cause crust underneath the fingernails, you would expect to find tissue, some type of skin material or something indicating that there you know, that there had been scratching or you would expect to find some type of trauma to the nail such as broken nails or something like that and there didn’t they didn’t appear to be that way.” Brinkman reported that she had spoken with Jennifer Mehavolin of the California testing laboratory, who had advised that based on the small amount of blood available on the thumbnail clippings, it did not “sound like the possibility of getting good results.” In Brinkman’s opinion, high heat and humidity at the time of the murder also could have degraded the DNA. At the conclusion of the hearing the motion to continue for purposes of performing DNA testing was denied.