The Sun Does Shine: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Ray spends a few weeks on parole at Kilby prison and then returns to Jefferson County to wait for his trial. Over this time, Ray barely gets the chance to talk to Lester and his mom, as collect calls are expensive. A grand jury indicts Ray on November 8, 1985; his face is in all the papers, and he knows that people want him dead. Ray then meets with his court-appointed lawyer, Sheldon Perhacs. As they sit down together for the first time, Perhacs grumbles to himself about having to work for so little money. When Ray tells Perhacs that he’s innocent, Perhacs says, “all y’all always doing something and saying you’re innocent.” Ray knows he needs Perhacs, so he lets the comment slide.

Ray asks Perhacs for a lie detector test—anything that will help prove Ray’s innocence. Perhacs says that he will visit the jail again soon to talk about the case. Soon after, the judge sets a trial date of March 6, 1986. In preparation, Ray takes a polygraph test, in which the examiner asks him about his involvement with the three incidents at the restaurants. The examiner concludes that Ray told the truth and was not involved in the incidents.

After taking the polygraph test, Ray goes to bed with newfound hope. He doesn’t know how his mom came up with the $350 for the test, but he hopes this will vindicate him. Perhacs and Bob McGregor, the prosecutor, agreed that whatever happened with the polygraph, either side could use it to argue their case. But after the results come back, Perhacs visits Ray and tells him that McGregor went back on the deal and will no longer allow the polygraph test into evidence. Ray is horrified, wondering why McGregor wants to go to trial knowing that Ray didn’t commit the crime.

Perhacs walks Ray through the rest of the evidence. First, the bullets from the three incidents all match his mom’s gun. Ray knows this is false, because the gun hasn’t been fired in 25 years. Second, Smotherman picked Ray out of a photo lineup and said Ray did it. Ray knows this is impossible, as he was at work when this incident happened and there was a guard checking him in and out of the warehouse. Perhacs says that they’ll argue Ray snuck out of work, but Ray knows that it takes at least 25 minutes to get to Bessemer, and he would have arrived too late to commit the crime. He asks Perhacs to have someone drive the route, but Perhacs simply dismisses him.

Ray asks one final thing, noting that there have been other holdups with managers getting robbed since Ray has been in jail. Perhacs says he’ll look into it, but that he’s only being payed $1,000, and he “eat[s] $1,000 for breakfast.” Perhacs asks if Ray has anyone who can pay $15,000 for the work, but no one in Ray’s life has that kind of money. Ray also learns that Perhacs only has $500 to pay a ballistics expert, and no one wants to testify for so little money.

Ray calls his brother Willie and asks for money to help. Willie asks if Perhacs can guarantee that he will prove Ray’s innocence. Ray can’t help but think that if the situations were reversed, he would do anything for his brother. He wonders if Willie thinks that Ray actually committed the crime. He’s frustrated that no one seems to believe him except Lester and his mom. Ray calls Perhacs periodically to tell him how much he appreciates the work he’s doing, knowing that Perhacs is his only chance to show that he is not a cold-blooded killer.