The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

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.