Once more DNA tests on evidence more than 30 years old has raised doubts about convicted Stocking Strangler Carlton Garys guilt.

This time its a partial DNA profile derived from semen found on a gown then 64-year-old Gertrude Miller wore to St. Francis Hospital after she was raped and beaten Sept. 11, 1977, in her 2703 Hood St. home. While the testing conducted by the Bode Technology Group in Lorton, Va., did not yield a complete DNA profile, it was enough to exclude Gary as a possible source of the sperm found on Millers clothing, said Greg Hampikian, a DNA expert for the defense.

Testing in 2010 on evidence from a vaginal wash of strangling victim Martha Thurmond yielded a complete DNA profile that matched neither Carlton Gary nor any other convict on file, Hampikian said. The results matched Gary only to the Sept. 24, 1977, rape and strangling of Jean Dimenstein, 71, of 3027 21st St. Gary was not convicted of her murder.

Hampikian said Tuesday that he has not yet compared the partial DNA from the Miller evidence to the profile derived from the Thurmond case, to see whether the two align.

Gary was convicted of murdering Thurmond, 69, who was found beaten, raped and strangled Oct. 25, 1977, in her 2614 Marion St. home. He was not charged in Millers assault, but in illustrating Garys pattern of breaking into homes and raping older women, prosecutors spotlighted Millers testimony during Garys 1986 trial, having her come to court to point him out as her assailant. She has died since then.

Millers case is distinct not only because she survived and identified Gary, but also because she insisted a single intruder attacked her, offering no evidence a second assailant was there to leave the semen that doesnt match Gary. Though prosecutors did not seek convictions on all seven stranglings or in the Miller rape, they maintained that Gary alone committed the crimes.

Lead defense attorney Jack Martin of Atlanta said these new test results bolster his contention that Gary deserves a new trial. He anticipates the next step will be a hearing before Muscogee County Superior Court Judge Frank Jordan Jr. to discuss the test results.

Declining an interview on Tuesday, District Attorney Julia Slater issued this written statement:

Nearly 35 years after Ms. Gertrude Miller was brutally beaten and sexually assaulted, results of DNA testing of clothing Ms. Miller possibly wore around the time of her attack are now complete. It is the states understanding that the defense has now concluded their requests for testing in this case. Presumably, Mr. Gary will request a hearing regarding the completed DNA testing. The state is limited in its ability to comment about this testing and other evidence. However, on behalf of the victims and their families, the state eagerly anticipates discussing in court the results of DNA testing, responding to the rhetoric from Mr. Garys defense team, and again showing why the jurys decision in this case must be upheld.

Arrested in 1984, Gary two years later was convicted in three of the seven brutal rapes and stranglings that terrorized Columbus in 1977 and 78. He was to die by lethal injection Dec. 16, 2009, when Martin made a last-minute appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court, which stayed the execution and ordered a Muscogee Superior Court judge to consider DNA testing. On Feb. 19, 2010, the defense and prosecution came to a consent agreement to DNA-test four items of evidence from the stranglings.

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Stocking Strangler case: DNA results from 1977 rape exclude Carlton Gary