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.