Kathy Shelton
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Kathy Shelton | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1962 (age 63–64) |
Kathy Shelton (born 1962) is an American rape survivor. The defendant in her 1975 case was represented by then-criminal defense lawyer Hillary Clinton (then Rodham) in court, which caused controversy when Clinton stood as the Democratic Party candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[1]
Shelton was raised by a single mother in Springdale, Arkansas.[2]
1975 attack and trial
In 1975, at age 12, Shelton was raped in Arkansas. The man accused of raping Shelton was 41-year-old defendant Thomas Alfred Taylor, who was a distant relative of Shelton.[2]
Taylor's court-appointed criminal defense lawyer was 27-year-old Hillary Rodham (now Clinton). At the time, she taught at the University of Arkansas School of Law, and represented the defendant pro bono.[2][3] In her autobiography, Clinton said she was reluctant to take the case and asked to be let off the case; her account was later confirmed by the prosecutor in the case.[4]
Taylor pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful fondling of a minor under the age of 14.[3] Based on court documents obtained by CNN and Clinton's account in her 2003 memoir Living History, Clinton won a plea deal for Taylor.[4]
After Shelton became aware that Clinton had been the criminal defense lawyer of the defendant in her case decades earlier, Shelton stated in 2007 that she herself bore no ill will toward Clinton for having had to act as her assailant's court-appointed criminal defence lawyer in the rape case, saying "I have to understand that she was representing Taylor ... Hillary was just doing her job."[5]