Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses death by suicide, racism, racial slurs, graphic violence, alcohol addiction, and stereotypes.

Chapter 1 Summary

It’s October 2, 1988. After a battle with lung cancer, Seth Hubbard, hangs himself from a sycamore tree on his property in Ford County, Mississippi. His body is found by Calvin Boggs, a handyman and farm laborer who works for Seth and whom Seth had asked to meet him at that spot. Police investigate the scene and find Seth’s suicide letter at his home.

Sheriff Ozzie Walls, one of only two Black sheriffs in Mississippi, oversees the investigation. Although Seth secretly financed Ozzie’s campaigns with occasional large cash donations, Ozzie has had no other contact with Seth, and finds little is known about the man in general.

In the town of Clanton, Jake Brigance is a hero to the Black community after representing Carl Lee Hailey three years prior and getting him acquitted. Jake and his wife Carla have a seven-year-old daughter, Hanna. Their home was burned down by the Ku Klux Klan during the Hailey trial. Many other threats and acts of violence by the KKK occurred during the trial and in its wake.