Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

This chapter focuses on the legal teams assembled for the upcoming Williams trial. One of Williams’s lawyers, John Wright Jones, opens the chapter by questioning the coroner, Dr. James C. Metts, about the evidence. Dr. Metts sympathizes with Williams’s situation, saying, “Hell, I’d have shot Danny Hansford too” (202), but he lets the lawyer know that the evidence will be difficult to interpret in Williams’s favor. The doctor thinks that he can explain the shot to the back and ear: The first shot in the chest had the power to rotate Hansford, which could indicate Hansford was shot standing up and not lying face down. However, the bigger problem is that there was no blood on the gun, even though there was blood on Hansford’s hand. The evidence also shows that someone rearranged the furniture after the shooting since the leg of a chair was on top of Hansford’s pants. In addition, the doctor found a cigarette butt that was stubbed out on a desk, which the prosecution can interpret as a motive for the shooting: Williams shot Hansford because he was angry that Hansford put out the cigarette on the furniture.

However, Jones notes potential bias: “[J]uries in Savannah don’t seem to mind seeing homosexuals get killed.