Jim Williams Murder Case

James. A.Williams or otherwise known as, Jim Williams, was a good man, for the most part. He was a well known antique dealer, who was highly respected by all who knew him. He had played an active role in the restoration of Savannah’s Historic district downtown, starting in the mid-1950s. Jim Williams was also well known for his “ have to be there,” christmas party that was always held the day before the Cotillion debutante ball. That “ Have to be there,” christmas party was going to be a thing of the past because Jim Williams was going on trial, for murder. On May 1, 1981, Jim Williams shot and killed Danny Hansford in the mercer House but one question still remained after police arrived, was it murder or self defense? At three a.m. police

Jim was then taken into custody and held on a twenty five thousand dollar bond along with being booked for murder. A mure detailed account of the event was printed in the next day's newspaper, “According to Williams, he had shot Danny Hansford in self defense,” ( Midnight in the garden p 174). Williams replayed the entire night for the newspaper, the night played out like this,“ He and Danny had attended a drive in movie and returned to Mercer house after midnight. At the house Hansford suddenly went wild. He stomped a video game, broke a chair, and smashed an eighteenth century grandfather clock. Then he grabbed a German Luger and aimed directly at Williams, who was sitting behind his desk, he fired three shots. All three missed. When he pulled the trigger to fire again, the gun jammed. That was when williams grabbed another Luger. Danny was struggling to unjam his gun when Williams shot him,” ( Midnight in the Garden p 174). With this story it looked as though it was self defense and that all charges were going to be dropped or so the citizens of Savannah thought. Nobody knew the severity of the charges until Spencer Lawton, the plaintiff's lawyer, presented his evidence in a secret session with the grand jury. Five days before the hearing was set to take place, “

Lawton opened each of his cases by calling the police dispatcher, who was on duty the night of the shooting. She reported a call from Jim Williams came through at 2:58, saying that he had just been in a shooting at his residence. Next came Joe Goodman, Who JIm called as soon as he had shot Danny, “ Goodman said that Williams had called him between 2:20 and 2:25 a.m. to say he had shot Danny,” ( Midnight in the Garden p 215). Jim didn’t call the authorities until 3:00 a.m. Therefore, the rest of Lawton’s witnesses gave testimony on what might of happened up to and during those thirty minutes before Williams decided to call the police. Combining all of Lawton’s testimonies brought out the prosecutor's theory of what happened, “ Williams fired at an unarmed Danny Hansford. Hansford fell to the floor facedown. Williams walked around the desk, fired two more times at Hansford, twice more at blank range, hitting him from behind the ear and in the back. Then he picked up another gun and “Fired it” at himself to make it look like Danny shot him,”(Midnight in the garden p 215). According to prosecutors, “ Williams went around his house, smashing bottles, overturning the big clock in the hall, and creating a scene of general mayhem,” ( Midnight in the garden p 216). Through the four days of prosecution testimony, Bobby Lee Cook,