DNA evidence from aborted fetus is key to aggravated rape conviction in NO

[MountainLaurel]

And to think her elected representatives would want her to bear her rapist's child at 11 years old.

After 11 years, three stabs at a trial and one reappearance of a human fetus, a jury on Thursday convicted a New Orleans man of aggravated rape Thursday for repeatedly molesting his deceased girlfriend's granddaughter, resulting in her pregnancy at age 11.

Samuel Williams, 58, will be sentenced Aug. 19 to life in prison, after a two-day trial in which DNA evidence from the fetus proved key, along with the ominous presence of the fetus itself.

"This is the greatest thing that has (the girl's) back," said prosecutor James Myers, holding before the jury a plastic zip-lock bag containing remnants of the fetus. "Because this right here will point to this man and say: 'You're a rapist, you're a pedophile...'"

The jury of seven men and five women took about an hour to render the guilty verdict in an 11-1 vote, unswayed by defense attorney John Fuller's attack on the DNA analysis in the case, as well as the science itself.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/08/dna_evidence_from_aborted_fetu.html