46 pages • 1 hour read
Anthony Ray Hinton, Lara Love HardinThe Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Conviction, Conviction, Conviction”
Hinton relates the events of September 12, 1986 when a prosecution witness named Reginal Payne White testifies he works at Quincy’s restaurant, where Sidney Smotherman—an alleged victim of Hinton—was manager. Hinton is incredulous about White’s testimony.
Hinton is convinced that White is testifying against him for two reasons. First, White is looking to collect a $5,000 reward. “[W]as he,” Hinton asks himself, “like every other young and poor black man in Jefferson County, just trying to get a little extra scratch to make it through?” (68). Second, Hinton believes that jealousy motivated White. Hinton recounts that the brother of the two sisters he once dated also worked with White at the restaurant that was robbed. Was this, Hinton wonders, the source of jealousy, a source of contempt? Hinton admits he had in fact “torn apart” the sisters’ family as a result of his deception (68).
Certain that White’s testimony is fraudulent, Hinton waits for his lawyer—Perhacs—to do a pointed cross-examination. Instead, Perhacs lets White off easy, without questioning any of the contradictions in his statement. Now nearing despair, Hinton reveals that his last hope lay in the testimony of the ballistics expert Perhacs hired to contradict the prosecution's experts.
Five days later, the district attorney alleges that the so-called expert—Andrew Payne—is a fraud. He reportedly testified in about 1,000 previous court cases; of that thousand, only twice was he asked to testify on the identification of firearms. During the trial, Hinton admits, “Andrew Payne never had a chance” (74). Payne comes off as a whiner; he is poorly spoken, hard of hearing, and only has one eye. After two hours, the jury finds Hinton guilty; less than one hour after that, he is sentenced to death.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Keep Your Mouth Shut”
Hinton begins with a series of musings, reflecting on how his life has been moving either too fast or too slow. Also, now that he is a convicted murderer, rarely do others meet his gaze; he explains, “I was now the worst of the worst. A human not fit for this life. A child of God who was condemned to die” (77).
He also wonders how his case went so terribly wrong. In addition to his expert being made to look foolish, his lawyer had not offered Hinton’s mother or his best friend the chance to testify. Hinton and his lawyer had also relayed to the jury that someone claiming to be the real killer had confessed over the phone, “but nobody cared” (78). He follows this with a long, seemingly rambling sequence of wishes, regrets, and desires: “I wanted to see the West Coast, and go to Hawaii, and visit England, and travel to South America” (79). He acknowledges within himself a sea change. He admits he wants to kill the prosecutor; he imagines, in great detail, doing precisely that.
Finally, he is called to report to Holman State Prison's death row—a three-hour trip. Hinton admits he is no longer going to cooperate; he refuses to speak, and forces guards to try to carry him. He does not give his social security number when asked; he merely nods or shakes his head during his medical intake exam. Once in his cell, he pulls out his copy of the King James Bible, and tosses it under the bed, saying, “I had no use for it. All of it was a lie” (84). Filled with hate, and plotting escape and revenge, Hinton drifts into sleep.
Chapter 9 Summary: “On Appeal”
Hinton begins by explaining the Alabama appeals process, which is a complicated and intentionally confusing system. He notes that during his imprisonment, there were more murders fitting the description of those for which he was convicted; when he calls Perhacs’s office, the secretary assures him that Perhacs is working on his appeal.
His mother visits with surprising news: She has been corresponding with Perhacs, and gives Hinton the two letters she received in response. The first letter assures Hinton’s mother that the appeal, while winnable, will take two years to prepare; following that, there would be another trial. The second letter offers little more information other than an apology for missed phone calls. Hinton learns that with each letter to Perhacs, his mother has been sending him $25: “Did [Perhacs] laugh at those money orders? […] twenty-five dollars might as well have been a hundred thousand to my mom. Perhacs didn’t know what it meant to be poor” (90). Hinton mentions Perhacs agreed only to file an appeal; after that, he would be off this case—but he doesn’t share this information with his mother.
Perhacs’s motion would be postponed, and ultimately denied. Hinton does, however, overhear some of his fellow death row inmates discussing their own legal cases; the name Bryan Stevenson is frequently mentioned. Hinton doesn’t trust the other inmates.; he doesn’t believe their claims that Stevenson has an entire appeals team.
Still struggling with despair, and not speaking to anyone, Hinton recounts the horror of being on death row. Showers were irregular; the water was often ice cold. “We were like farm animals being hosed off outside the barn,” he explains, “[e]veryone cried at night […] it was the only time you could cry anonymously” (93-94). There were rats and roaches, and the blood of those inmates who had killed themselves. Perhacs, now appealing to the state Supreme Court, sends a letter, sheepishly admitting his own shortcomings as a lawyer, and informing Hinton that while an appeal could ultimately made to the U.S. Supreme Court, Hinton would need more money.
At this point in the narrative, Hinton has been on death row for more than two years.
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
In these chapters, Hinton employs a number of narrative and rhetorical strategies. In Chapter 7, he offers an ironic introductory quotation from prosecutor Bob McGregor. In essence, the quotation insists that Hinton is innocent unless proven “beyond a reasonable doubt” to be otherwise (67). Hinton juxtaposes this statement against many reasonable doubts, listed in a series of questions that are meant to show reasonable doubt—questions that his lawyer should have raised. “Where was the money?” Hinton asks, “[w]here were my bloody clothes? Where were the snags on my clothing from climbing over a fifteen-foot razor wire? Was I a superhero? Was I James Bond?” (70).
In Chapter 8, Hinton's insights demonstrate he is a sensitive person and has not lost his humanity. In this case, however, he is relying on the memory of sensation outside the prison walls:
I missed Sylvia. I missed her sweet kisses and her skin that smelled like spring flowers after the rain. I hadn’t smelled anything good in year and a half. Only the sweat of men forced to wear the same clothes for weeks at a time (78-79).
Following this lengthy description—which lasts nearly two pages—Hinton follows with a one-sentence long paragraph: “I wanted to kill McGregor” (79). Relying again on imagined sensory detail, Hinton portrays his gruesome fantasy: “I could feel his neck in my hands […] I pressed harder until his eyes bulged and his tongue rolled out of his mouth” (79). This shift in style reflects a shift in Hinton; he has started losing his humanity. The chapter closes with a series of shorter sentences and paragraphs, and Hinton tells the reader that has given up reading his Bible for comfort.
Chapter 9 also demonstrates Hinton’s ability to relay sense, especially when his mother visits: “She smelled like laundry soap and rose water, but she looked tired. There were dark circles under her eyes” (87). Furthermore, Hinton adds real documents, as he has done before, in order to give legitimacy to his claims, and to offer the reader a shift in narrative style. In this case, Hinton offers actual letters written by his lawyer that his mother brought to him. Finally, despite his situation, Hinton assures his mother that he is fine. It is a lie, but Hinton maintains, “lies told to ease pain or protect someone’s heart are lies that need to be told” (88). This assertion also serves as ironic counterpoint to the lies, half-truths, and denial of facts that have served to put Hinton on death row.
