Dep Kirkland - Lawyer Games: After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

LAWYER GAMES

After Midnight in the
Garden of Good and Evil

Dep Kirkland

Lawyer Games: After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

2015, 2021. Dep Kirkland All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the author.

ISBNs:
978-1-7365-6631-2 (Hardcover)
978-1-7365-6630-5 (Paperback)
978-1-7365-6632-9 (E-Book)

Acknowledgements

I would like to recognize the following, who aided this ridiculously difficult effort in ways both grand and small, even if some of them dont know it.

Two miraculous young women, Maggie and Emily, who happen to be my daughters, who stuck with me through some radical turns in my life that, in turn, flipped theirs upside down, but who never doubted me, at least not to my face. Their mother, Lisa, who survived that upheaval with dignity and grace, who raised these incredible young women with little help from me, and who lived through what is described below, beginning with a phone ringing in the dark.

My dear friend, Rick Andosca, consummate actor, director, teacher, and tireless reader of this manuscript, without whose support none of this would have been possible.

Legendary acting teacher, mentor, and friend Fred Kareman, who gave me the gift of self.

For many and varied reasons: D. Everette Ragan, J. D. Smith, Priscilla Russell, David T. Lock, R. Eugene (Gene) Roy, Donna K. Stevens, Michele Schiro, Dr. Richard M. Draffin, Barbara Wright, Ann Woolner, Meg Daly Heap, John S. Strickland, Ricky E. Becker, Linda Kaapa, Daniel Massey, and Greg McConnell.

Spencer Lawton Jr., who allowed me access to his personal archives, files and records related to the Williams matter without any restriction or qualification.

Dear friends and family who have always supported what some have thought was the life path of a lunatic: Jo Louisa Tebeau, Jim Epting, Janie Belcher, J.C. Epting, Lee Ellen Hanberry, Dave Brantley, Gen. (Ret.) Steven Westgate, Fritz Rumpel, Steven Hyam, Paul Burks, Jo Ann Miles-Miller, Bray Patrick-Lake, and Raymond Clawson.

To Dr. Larry B. Howard: You were right.

To Darlene Swanson, who helped birth this second edition.

And finally, in memory of my mother, Mertice Kieffer Kirkland, who should have gone to law school herself instead of suggesting it to me. She would have made a good one.

Contents

Prologue

H e did it.

In the early morning hours of May 2, 1981, in the antique-filled study of a mansion in historic downtown Savannah, fifty-year-old James Arthur Williams killed twenty-one-year-old Danny Lewis Hansford with three 9mm slugs from a vintage WWII German Luger. According to Williams, he shot young Hansford in self-defensebecause Hansford had tried to kill him with another vintage WWII German Luger.

Over the ensuing eight and a half years, following four murder trials, a record-setting best seller and a major motion picture, a perception arose that Williams was right, that he had shot and killed Danny Hansford only to save his own life.

I was there the night it happened, standing in the study of Mercer House with detectives and a Crime Scene Unit ID officer, surrounded by a wealth of damning physical evidence. I was the person who advised detectives to arrest Williams for murder. The truth is that James Williamss defense of himself did not begin until after Danny Hansford was dead.

During preparation of the case for presentation to a grand jury, District Attorneys Office Chief Investigator J. D. Smith and I traveled to Atlanta to consult with Dr. Larry B. Howard, Director of the Forensic Services Division of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (more generally known as the State Crime Lab). Dr. Howard was past vice president of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists, president of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, charter member of the American Board of Forensic Toxicology, and past vice president of the Forensic Science Foundation (research arm of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences). Georgias Crime Lab was the second largest in the nation, and Dr. Howard was a legend in forensic criminalistics, having dissected thousands of crime scenes and performed more than six thousand forensic autopsies.

We told Dr. Howard the version of events according to Williams, handed over crime scene photos, and headed off to find some lunch. Upon our return, I asked Dr. Howard what he thought, anticipating detailed questions about the scene. Dr. Howard simply handed the photos back and said, The son of a bitch is lying.

A few pitch-dark minutes before 4 a.m. on May 2, 1981, the phone rang in the upstairs bedroom of a Trustees Garden townhouse in downtown Savannah. Even though I was the Chief Assistant District Attorney, being called in the middle of the night to come to the scene of a shooting was unusual.

Savannah was not a sleepy Southern hamlet and shootings were not rare events, yet my labeling as merely unusual the call that would precede the criminal prosecution of James Williams for the murder of Danny Hansford would prove to be the understatement of a lifetime. The Williams criminal case would continue for more than eight years and produce a trail of bloody legal battles of legendary proportion, quite aside from its four murder trials.

The residence where the killing took placea stately brick mansion at 429 Bull Street known as Mercer Housewas originally designed for General Hugh Weedon Mercer, great-grandfather of the songwriter Johnny Mercer. In May of 1981, Mercer House was the residence of James A. Williams and the location of his antique business, with a refinishing shop in the basement and the commercial enterprise operated from the carriage house at the rear of the property, fronting on Whitaker Street. The site was bounded on the front (east) by Bull Street and Monterey Square, on the north by W. Wayne Street, on the west by Whitaker Street, and on the south by W. Gordon Street.

There is something about being at a live crime scene before its processed. Many investigators believe they gain special insight from physically walking a scene, being present as soon after the event as possible. I would not purport to have those kinds of instincts, but I was there while the scene remained a pristine snapshot of its final momentthe moment Danny Hansford fell dead to the study floor. Being there matters.

If you have an issue with crime scene photographs, put the book down now. If you want to know what happened in the study of the mansion on Monterey Square, keep reading.

From the moment he fell dead, Danny Hansford became an item of evidencea critical item of evidence. This might sound callous, but there is no choice. To understand what caused the victims death, you have to consider the victim. When you see the way a victim can be treated after death by a defense teamas in this caseyou might conclude that being shot was the least of the violations perpetrated upon them.

When you have finished this book, you will know more than any jury ever knew about the Williams murder case. You will also be privy to an explanation that no jury ever heard of what happened in that room and why.

As in any similar case, everything begins and ends with the crime scene. To quote myself, from my closing argument in the first trial of Williams:

I would suggest to you that there is ... another voice in this courtroom, thats been here the whole time, that weve had a hard time hearing.... Danny Hansford is here somewhere with us.... Hes here in these photographs, and I think if its quiet enough ... if youll concentrate ... you can almost hear him screaming, Please listen to me.