In the first chapter, a man named Jefferson is convicted of robbery and murder in the first degree. He was with two other guys, Brother and Bear. The two of them had already been drinking and went into a bar called The White Rabbit. There they had asked for some whine but the bartender, Mr. Grope, had noticed that they had already been drinking and refused to sell the liquor to them. As Mr. Grope was putting the bottle back on the shelf one of the boys, Bear, went around the counter after him. Mr. Grope warned him, then reached for the cash register and pulled out a gun. He shot Bear and Brother, one of them he shot twice. Jefferson was the only one left. Mr. Grope had been badly injured by Bear and Jefferson could hear him calling, "boy", from behind the counter. He was so shocked he didn't know what was going on, where he was, or how he got there. He stood unarmed behind the counter and saw that Mr. Grope was dead with the cash register was open. He knew that it would be wrong to take the money but he was so confused he couldn't see straight. He took a bottle of whine from the shelf and started drinking it quickly. After the drink he began to think more clearly. He took the money from the cash register and put it into his coat pocket. As he was walking out two white guys were approaching the store. That was his side of the story as he was sitting in the courtroom explaining it. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The prosecutor of the trial accused him of walking into a bar with Brother and Bear, killing Mr. Grope so that no one would be able to give any descriptions, and then he celebrated by drinking the whine while standing in their blood. The jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death by the electric chair.
             Grant, the narrator, has just arrived home from school. He is trying hard to avoid Miss Emma, his Aunt, because he knows what she is going to say to him. He sneaks upstairs into his room and...