Photo by Jason Long, Bowdoin Orient
Bowdoin College Show
Pickard Theater, located on the beautiful Bowdoin College campus

6 October 2004. "Humble Farmer" prepares letter about the Dennis Dechaine case.

Following up on his essay on his 17 September program (See "Latest News"), the humble Farmer has prepared a letter for this website and that he will be sending to people.

"Although Dennis has lived within 5 miles of me for 16 years, I only became aware of his existence this past summer. At the first opportunity, over a bowl of fish chowder, I asked my good friend and attorney of 30 years if he had ever heard of Dennis Dechaine. His first three words were, "He was railroaded." Before I'd finished my crackers I had learned the disturbing news that a judge can practically decide if a jury will find you guilty or innocent, simply by the evidence that he/she permits the jury to hear. I didn't know that, and it should scare the pants off anyone who might someday find themselves in the wrong place at the right time in this land of the free and the home of the brave. At the time, I wondered why my good friend, a lawyer who knew about what he considered a miscarriage of justice when it happened 16 years ago, didn't do something about it --- or at least say something.

Later, I gave the famous green book about Dennis to the bravest man I know --- a man who knows men better than anyone I know --- a man who, at one time, knew the name, history and personal habits of every inmate in the Maine state prison. When it comes to understanding crime and the psychotic and/or criminal mind, I will put him up against anyone in Maine. Although already quite familiar with the case, he returned the book, bent and dog-eared, and what I understood him to say was that two policemen had screwed up, it looked like the Attorney General was trying to cover up something, there was something fishy about the dealings with the doctor who went to Canada, and that guilty or innocent, Dennis Dechaine deserved a trial where all the evidence would be presented.

I don't want to meet Dennis Dechaine. I don't want to watch his video. I understand that he is a very personable young man and I would rather that facts and not personality guide my opinions.

The facts are disturbing. The more I think about all this foot-dragging on the part of Steve Rowe to give Dennis a new trial, the more it bothers me because I like to think that Steve Rowe is a good guy. And the longer the powers that be put off giving Dennis another trial, the more one has to suspect that it might be because a new trial would make more than a few people uncomfortable. From what little I've read about the case, sixteen years ago a handful of people with power abused that power royally.

And unless something happens very soon, I'm going to believe that a handful of people with power are abusing it now.

I've talked to several educated, intelligent and informed people about this case. They are people whose opinions I respect. And I have yet to meet one who doesn't think that Dennis Dechaine deserves a new trial where all the evidence is presented to a jury.

Robert Karl Skoglund

+++

July 11, 2006

Dear Robert,

I've just been linked by a friend to the letter you wrote about the Dennis Dechaine case. Thanks. Thanks again. I only became aware of it a little under two years ago when someone pushed the green book into my hands and begged me to read it. Having coordinated the anti-fingerprinting campaign in the Legislature with your brother, I was already rather sensitive to abuses of civil liberties. Jim Moore's book alarmed me, and continues to do so. In case you don't know, the second edition is about to come out; I was asked to edit it for Jim to eliminate the many typos and to shorten the length of the original. It's a lot cleaner now, but still the same disturbing book. Jim has also put together a much shorter volume, State Secrets: What the Jury Never Heard in the Dennis Dechaine Case, which is also now available (only 60 pages, tightly focused on the evidence and abuses of process).

You may also be interested to learn that Trial and Error Dennis, the advocacy group, is sponsoring the showing at the Maine International Film Festival of After Innocence, a documentary about the wrongful incarceration and final exoneration of eight men across the country, one of whom, Dennis Maher of Massachusetts, will share a discussion panel with Jim Moore following the film. The showing is scheduled for Friday, July 21st at 6:45 pm in Cinema One at the RR Square Cinema in Waterville (which houses 150, so come early if you wish to see this event). Dennis Maher is a compelling man, and has already been to Maine to testify this past spring before the Legislature's Judiciary Committee during its public hearing on L.D. 1907, the bill, now signed into law, which amends Maine's post-conviction DNA statutue and will make it easier for Dennis Dechaine to obtain a new trial.

Hope to see you there.

Bernie Huebner

(formerly coordinator of Maine Educators Against Fingerprinting)

P.S.: Please say hi to your brother Jim for me when you next see him.