A Trip Upstate

In the Heat of the Night is a fabulous series for many reasons, but this profound episode is arguably the best. Regardless of your positions and beliefs, you should be left with something to consider.

Chief William O. "Bill" Gillespie: You really hate this (execution) don't you?

Sheriff Ketch Monroe: ...After war, it's about the worse thing we do. It's useless. But the people want it.

(Before that exchange, Monroe had just given Gillespie a postcard that featured some boys fishing on a river as the sun disappeared. He said it was like the one he pulled out and stared into at the executions he was legally required to attend because it helped him imagine a peaceful transition.)

Chief William O. "Bill" Gillespie (to Chief of Detectives Virgil Tibbs, after questioning his uncertain charges on what they believe the founding fathers meant by "cruel and unusual punishment"-which is an reference to the Eight Amendment): About the only way you can execute a man without torturing him is to tell him you forgive him. Tell him you forgive him. Then turn him loose. And as soon as you see a happy smile come over his face, shoot him in the back of the head.

Capital punishment is the theme of this In The Heat Of The Night story, Carroll O'Connor gets a request from a condemned prisoner whom he apprehended years ago to be present at his execution. So he makes an overnight trip to Parchement prison to visit Paul Benjamin set to die. Benjamin has a special request.

Benjamin's scenes with O'Connor are wonderful to watch. A man totally at peace with himself and regretting the wrong he did and waiting to meet his maker,

On the other hand Christopher Allport the DA in the county Sparta is in is hot to trot to execute a pair of escaped criminals that Howard Rollins led the Sparta Police in apprehending. This DA also manages to make one royal foolof himself.

But the main reason to watch this episode is Paul Benjamin.

This is storytelling by at its most exceptional. This is a story told as much by its silences as by its sounds. A searing indictment of the banality-and thus, the evil-of capital punishment.

In The Heat of the Night is a wonderful series, touching on values that are needed in today's struggling world. This episode in particular is deeply moving. Compassion is glorious and the whole show demonstrates that truth. Thank you!!