DNA prompts NY rape retrial after 32 years

NEW YORK - Kathleen Ham stared at the man accused of raping her 32 years ago, grimaced, and then testified on Thursday, injecting new life into an old case that could be linked to more than 20 other rapes.

The New York state criminal trial was revived when a review of the victim's case file last year unearthed the underpants she wore after the rape and a viable semen sample.

DNA from that sample matched those from nine unsolved sexual assaults in Maryland and two in New Jersey, and Maryland authorities believe it could be tied to 21 attacks attributed to the "Silver Spring Rapist," prosecutors say.

While the science of DNA testing was crucial, the New York trial could not proceed without the personal testimony of Ham, who was able to recall harrowing details because, she said, "Some of my recollections are burned into my brain."

"He put a sheet over my face. I felt a knife on my on my neck, on my skin. ... (I thought) I'm going to die. ... He raped me," she said haltingly when questioned by the prosecutor.

Ham, 58, wants her name made public because she is not ashamed, she told The New York Times. The defendant is charged under the name Clarence Williams, 58, but has used other names including Fletcher Anderson Morrell.

His 1974 trial ended with a deadlocked jury, largely because Ham never saw her attacker's face and could not identify him.

Defence lawyer Michael Rubin said testimony in the new trial could not be trusted because events were so old.

"It was not Fletcher Anderson Morrell who committed that crime," Rubin told the jury in opening arguments on Thursday.

Williams was convicted of the rape of another woman in 1974 but that was overturned because parts of his statement to police were mistakenly admitted into evidence.

With both rape cases pending retrial, the defendant left New York and went undetected until last year, when he attempted to buy a shotgun in Georgia and underwent a background check.

That alerted New York authorities, who had him extradited, and provoked the review of the case file.

"He's been out there 32 years," Ham told the Times. "And I've been in my own private jail."

- REUTERS