51 pages • 1-hour read
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
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Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “The Cooler Killer”
Hinton recalls the events of 1985, including newspaper articles about men being murdered in restaurants. He begins with a clipping from the Birmingham Post Herald, dated February 26 reporting the slaying of John Davidson. Hinton maintains he doesn’t know where he was on that date: “While I can’t say where I was or what I was doing on that particular night, I do know I was not out beating and robbing and murdering. I also know somebody got away with murder” (38).
He follows with a general recollection of that summer. He has a job assembling furniture at The Brass Works, but eventually chooses to leave this job for one at Manpower. He dreams about eventually opening a restaurant to serve the food his mother taught him to make; he has a serious girlfriend, Sylvia, and finds himself wondering, over the Fourth of July weekend, if the relationship might become more serious. He offers another news item from July 3; in this case, a restaurant employee, Thomas Wayne Vason, was fatally shot. The police note there are some similarities between this case and a previous one.
Finally, after detailing the drudgery of his work but his appreciation for the job, Hinton cites another newspaper article from July 27; in this instance, a third restaurant manager, Sidney Smotherman, was shot, but survived the attack. Smotherman describes his accuser as a large black man, and police note, again, similarities to the previous robberies and murders. On July 31, while mowing his mother’s lawn, Hinton sees two white men near the house and says the following:
I had no idea why there were two policemen on my mama’s porch, but I wasn’t afraid. We had always been taught if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have no reason to fear and certainly no reason to run (45).
Hinton gives permission for them to search his mother’s house and his car, and they arrest him.
The last newspaper clipping gives the details of Hinton's arrest. Hinton is charged with capital murder in the two slayings. Additionally, upon searching his mother’s house, police found a .38-caliber pistol and claim it was the same one used in all three crimes.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Premeditated Guilt”
Hinton describes his arrival at the Bessemer police station. Not yet realizing the gravity of his situation, he writes that he was annoyed and angry: “How embarrassing, I thought. For me and for the police when they had to tell the press they made a mistake” (49).
The arresting officers, along with the DA, ask Hinton to sign a paper without his reading it; he refuses. They ask him about his whereabouts on the nights of the crimes; he is able to remember where he was only on the night of the third crime, and gives them that information, which should have exonerated him. However, they ignore his alibi, and transport him to Birmingham County Jail; on the ride there, Lieutenant Acker explains to Hinton that, for five reasons, his conviction is inevitable: Hinton is black; a white man will say that Hinton shot him; the DA will be white; the judge will be white; the jury, too, will be white.
Concerned for his mother’s welfare, Hinton reminisces about how she taught him to tell the truth, and that “you’ve got nothing to fear” (52). Hinton believes it. “I was innocent,” he says, “and it would get sorted out in the morning” (53). Wanting to simply go to his cell and try to sleep, a guard tells him he has to remain in the common area. There, a white prisoner gives Hinton an ambiguous welcome to C block, “where all the capital murder kids come to play” (54).
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Whole Truth”
Hinton is sent to Kilby Prison to finish his parole sentence, then back to Jefferson County, where he is indicted, and a trial date is set. His court-appointed lawyer, Sheldon Perhacs, seems disinterested in the case, but does arrange for Hinton to take a polygraph at Hinton’s own expense.
Hinton offers confidential documents—the polygraph tests, with questions, answers, and results. The polygraph examiner determines Hinton has indeed passed. However, he learns the next day that the prosecution reneged on a previous deal to allow the results to be presented in court; they were hoping the test would prove his guilt. Perhacs tries to lay out the prosecutor’s case against Hilton: The bullets used in the crimes matched those of his mother’s gun and a survivor picked him out of a lineup.
Hinton, ironically, offers Perhacs legal advice, even telling him that similar robberies have been taking place since his arrest; Perhacs contends that Hinton should let him do his job. The greater obstacle, Hinton adds, would be coming up with the money to hire a ballistics expert; this alone would cost $15,000, and another $15,000 for Perhacs to present the best defense possible. Desperate, Hinton asks his older brother to lend him the money; his brother hesitates and ultimately refuses, claiming that the loan came with no guarantee of fully proving Hinton’s innocence. Heartbroken, Hinton concludes that his older brother “must, in some place within him, have believed that I was a killer […] It hurt inside to not have his help” (65).
For now, Hinton would have to put all of his faith in his lawyer: “He was my only voice. And I needed his voice to get loud in that courtroom. I needed him to show the jury the truth” (65).
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
In these chapters, Hinton uses his skills as a narrator in offering documents, using stylistic phrasing, and providing an assortment of description and details. Hinton's dramatic pacing of the unfolding story changes when he offers actual documents relating to the case. The newspaper articles are not simply paraphrased; they are presented in the original text. His polygraph test, too, labelled confidential, is obviously real, rather than an approximation. In the pages of Hinton’s book, the document is in courier font, meant to resemble typewriter print. These documents accomplish two things: They break up Hinton's otherwise spoken-word writing style, and they give the reader the opportunity to visit the documents Hinton himself must have repeatedly seen.
Hinton also employs a compelling writing style so his phrasing works to reinforce the text. By writing five consecutive sentences starting with “I knew,” this repetition reflects the tedious and dull lifestyle he wanted to avoid. He knew he didn’t want to work in a coalmine, or live in prison. “I knew,” he continues, “I wasn’t cut out to be a deckhand on a tug hauling coal up and down the river” (39).
Furthermore, Hinton uses sensory details to help the reader to, first, appreciate his sensitivity, and second, to act as a surrogate in reliving scenes from his life. He describes the weather: “It was foggy that night—I couldn’t even see any stars […] it was in the mid-seventies and humid. I felt like rain was gathering” (42). In the Birmingham jail, he describes in great detail the squalor, which evokes comprehension of his dire situation. “I was given green-and-white scrubs to change into,” he explains, “I was given a thin, one-inch mattress, a plastic razor, a plastic mug.” The seats in the common room are “cold, rounded,” with “metal seats and tables bolted to the floor” (53).
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