Read Online After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by Marilyn J Bardsley - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Marilyn J Bardsley
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hole:
On direct (rebuttal) by the state:
“Q. All right, did Mr. Williams undertake to show you a bullet hole that Danny Hansford was alleged to have put into a floor of any place else in the house?
A. Yes, sir. In the bedroom on the right side, which is the south side of the bed, he pointed out that Mr. Hansford fired a weapon in the floor where the carpet’s at. We made close observation of the carpet. There appeared to be a hole in the carpet and as we looked the carpet over, it appeared the bullet did strike the floor.
I could not determine if that was a new type of gunshot or was an old one. To my knowledge if the shot was fired, it would have been trapped into the floor and in the carpet, but we could not locate no bullet.”
[Emphasis supplied]
On cross by the defense:
“Q. And he told you that the suspect had discharged a pistol inside and out of the home; is that true, sir?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And you found signs of a bullet wound or bullet hole in the rug and in the floor itself on the second floor, did you not, sir?
A. Yes, sir.”
[Emphasis supplied]
According to Lawton, during the trial, in judge’s chambers, Cook brought up the possibility of an inconsistency between the police report and Cpl. Anderson’s testimony regarding the “freshness” of a bullet hole found in an upstairs bedroom during the April 3 incident. The prosecution answered spontaneously from memory that no inconsistency had occurred and suggested at that time that Cook take a look at the unedited police report that was immediately available in Judge Oliver’s file, but Cook “declined the offer. Later, however, Cook claimed in his appeal that he had been deprived of the report he had been offered in chambers. Later, when asked under oath whether he’d in fact ever had an unedited version of the report, Mr. Cook—instead of answering directly—said, ‘I don’t know what you mean by an unedited version.’”
Despite this, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed the conviction, “citing a corruption of the truth-seeking function of the trial process.” Later, when the Georgia Supreme Court revisited the same issue, it found: “… it is clear that no intentional ‘corruption of the truth-seeking function of the trial process’ by the prosecutor has been established here.”
When Lawton proposed in his closing statements that the April 3 incident was a hoax, the testimony about the bullet hole seemed to take on increased importance. However, whether the bullet hole was fresh or old was of little consequence. Jim could have made that bullet hole to stage a scene, or Danny could have created it in an angry rampage.
The Second Trial
Jim hired new lawyers for his second trial. Bobby Lee Cook was tied up in a federal trial in Florida, so Jim hired his friend Frank “Sonny” Seiler to be lead counsel. Seiler was a senior partner at Bouhan, Williams & Levy LLP. Its offices are in the Armstrong House, which Jim had restored years earlier. Seiler was a very highly regarded and skilled litigator who was president of the State Bar of Georgia in 1973. In the movie
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
, he played the judge in the trial scenes. Seiler and his wife began the long line of bulldogs that became the famous mascot for the University of Georgia football team the Georgia Bulldogs. The bulldogs, appropriately named Uga, are traditionally present at all University of Georgia football games. Seiler was assisted by Austin E. Catts and Donald F. Samuel from Garland, Samuel & Loeb, the premier criminal defense firm in Atlanta.
Sonny Seiler
photo by Jeanne Papy
The trial began on September 18, 1983, in Judge George E. Oliver’s court. The jury was composed equally of men and women; seven were black and five were white. This time, the issue of sexual orientation was of paramount importance to the defense team. Another concern was community knowledge of
On direct (rebuttal) by the state:
“Q. All right, did Mr. Williams undertake to show you a bullet hole that Danny Hansford was alleged to have put into a floor of any place else in the house?
A. Yes, sir. In the bedroom on the right side, which is the south side of the bed, he pointed out that Mr. Hansford fired a weapon in the floor where the carpet’s at. We made close observation of the carpet. There appeared to be a hole in the carpet and as we looked the carpet over, it appeared the bullet did strike the floor.
I could not determine if that was a new type of gunshot or was an old one. To my knowledge if the shot was fired, it would have been trapped into the floor and in the carpet, but we could not locate no bullet.”
[Emphasis supplied]
On cross by the defense:
“Q. And he told you that the suspect had discharged a pistol inside and out of the home; is that true, sir?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And you found signs of a bullet wound or bullet hole in the rug and in the floor itself on the second floor, did you not, sir?
A. Yes, sir.”
[Emphasis supplied]
According to Lawton, during the trial, in judge’s chambers, Cook brought up the possibility of an inconsistency between the police report and Cpl. Anderson’s testimony regarding the “freshness” of a bullet hole found in an upstairs bedroom during the April 3 incident. The prosecution answered spontaneously from memory that no inconsistency had occurred and suggested at that time that Cook take a look at the unedited police report that was immediately available in Judge Oliver’s file, but Cook “declined the offer. Later, however, Cook claimed in his appeal that he had been deprived of the report he had been offered in chambers. Later, when asked under oath whether he’d in fact ever had an unedited version of the report, Mr. Cook—instead of answering directly—said, ‘I don’t know what you mean by an unedited version.’”
Despite this, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed the conviction, “citing a corruption of the truth-seeking function of the trial process.” Later, when the Georgia Supreme Court revisited the same issue, it found: “… it is clear that no intentional ‘corruption of the truth-seeking function of the trial process’ by the prosecutor has been established here.”
When Lawton proposed in his closing statements that the April 3 incident was a hoax, the testimony about the bullet hole seemed to take on increased importance. However, whether the bullet hole was fresh or old was of little consequence. Jim could have made that bullet hole to stage a scene, or Danny could have created it in an angry rampage.
The Second Trial
Jim hired new lawyers for his second trial. Bobby Lee Cook was tied up in a federal trial in Florida, so Jim hired his friend Frank “Sonny” Seiler to be lead counsel. Seiler was a senior partner at Bouhan, Williams & Levy LLP. Its offices are in the Armstrong House, which Jim had restored years earlier. Seiler was a very highly regarded and skilled litigator who was president of the State Bar of Georgia in 1973. In the movie
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
, he played the judge in the trial scenes. Seiler and his wife began the long line of bulldogs that became the famous mascot for the University of Georgia football team the Georgia Bulldogs. The bulldogs, appropriately named Uga, are traditionally present at all University of Georgia football games. Seiler was assisted by Austin E. Catts and Donald F. Samuel from Garland, Samuel & Loeb, the premier criminal defense firm in Atlanta.
Sonny Seiler
photo by Jeanne Papy
The trial began on September 18, 1983, in Judge George E. Oliver’s court. The jury was composed equally of men and women; seven were black and five were white. This time, the issue of sexual orientation was of paramount importance to the defense team. Another concern was community knowledge of
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