Court error could free suspected killer

Kimberly Grant spent the past six years trying to rebuild her life after a bullet struck her husband dead on a warm Charleston evening.

In the crack of a pistol shot, Grant became a single parent, trying to raise a young daughter who wanted to know where her daddy had gone. As she struggled through the grief and heartache that followed, Grant took slim comfort knowing that the man who pulled the trigger that night would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Or not.

Grant may soon be sharing the same streets as the triggerman after the state Supreme Court reversed James Summersett Jr.'s murder conviction in the April 15, 2002 killing of her husband, 27-year-old Julian "Dooly" Grant.

Citing errors by the origin trial court, the justices ordered that Summersett be granted a new trial. He has been transferred from state prison to the Charleston County jail, and could be released on bail as early as next Friday.

"All my roots are in Charleston," Kimberly Grant said. "But there is no way I could stay here with the possibility of my daughter or myself seeing him."

To learn more about the case read Sunday's Post and Courier.