Free After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by Marilyn J Bardsley

the case and Jim’s earlier conviction, because it had such a high media profile in the Savannah area. The jury was sequestered.
     
    In Lawton’s summary of the Williams case, he explained how different the second trial was from the first. “This time … the defense pulled out all the stops: professional consultants to help evaluate and select potential jurors; a re-creation of the crime scene in the courtroom (even bringing in the actual furniture from Williams’ study); and two new ‘eyewitnesses.’”
     
    The prosecution’s case was very similar to the first trial, which had secured a conviction. Many of the same witnesses were called with testimony very much like what was presented at the 1982 trial.
     
    On September 29, 1983, Savannah Detective Everette Ragan, the prosecution’s main police witness, testified that Danny was shot from behind and a pistol was subsequently placed in his hand.
     
    Jan Skutch of the
Savannah Morning News
reported, “Ragan is the crux of District Attorney Spencer Lawton’s contention that Hansford’s death was a killing set up to appear self-defense. Defense lawyers challenged whether Ragan was qualified to provide expert opinions. Judge Oliver allowed Ragan to testify as an expert criminal investigator over repeated defense objections. Ragan was permitted to draw conclusions based on what he found at the scene.”
     
    Dr. Irving C. Stone, who had worked on the investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, was the head of the Dallas, Texas, Institute for Forensic Sciences. Skutch reported that Stone told the jury that all three of the gunshots that Danny sustained were fired from more than four feet away. This testimony disputed the prosecution’s assertion that Danny was shot as he lay on the floor.
     
    Lawton’s case summary states: “In an effort to explain how Hansford could have shot at Williams from point-blank range and missed, Dr. Stone testified that he had test-fired the same pistol in the lab. He said that a tight, or heavy, trigger pull would tend to distort aim by pulling the muzzle of the gun down. This pistol, he said, had such a heavy trigger pull that when he attempted to fire it for the first time it was so difficult that he actually checked to see if the safety was on. It was not. In fact, he said, he required two hands to hold the gun level and fire it.”
     
    Finally, Jim understood that he was going to have to deal with the sex issue. Instead of waiting for Lawton to bring up Jim’s relationship with Danny, Seiler asked Jim to describe it. Skutch described Jim’s response for his newspaper: “This other thing (his sexual relationship with Hansford) had no mystique to it,” Williams said. “It was just something that’s a natural and normal thing. I was 52 years old, but he (Hansford) had 52 years’ mileage on him.”
     
    One is left to wonder how the Savannah jurors imagined that relationship as a “natural and normal thing.” The comment served to show how distant Jim was from the minds and morals of the average person.
     
    This time, a new witness was added. Barry Thomas headed up Jim’s restoration shop. He recounted an incident in which Danny charged at him, knocked him down and kicked him in the stomach for no apparent reason.
     
    The
Savannah Morning News
reported that Seiler brought forth two surprise witnesses. One was a woman who was sitting in the square in front of Mercer House when Danny was shot. She heard four or five gunshots fired at once. The other was a woman who testified that she heard a gunshot around 3 AM on April 3, 1981, as she came home from work. She saw a “young man” (presumably Danny) fire a gun into the square from Jim’s yard.
     
    Lawton’s case summary addresses Dr. Stone’s testimony about the heavy trigger pull on the pistol that Danny allegedly used to shoot at Jim. “In closing,” Lawton stated, “I had Ms. Aldridge, a petite woman of perhaps 100 pounds, point the pistol at arm’s