After being released by his captors, the chief discovers that his abduction is part of a plot to assassinate a visiting civil rights leader.

Gillespie and his officers are outraged when a drug courier who ran down the son of Virgil's next door neighbor makes a deal with the F.B.I. to avoid prosecution.

In this thought provoking episode.Gillespie is surprised when a man he arrested asks to see him on the eve of his execution.He must confront his feelings about the death penalty when the prisoner asks him to witness his death.

Sweet risks his life to prove that the Sheriff of a neighboring county is guilty of the racially motivated murder of a young man that Sweet was friends with in high school.

Tibbs,Gillespie and Bubba pursue different leads in a bizarre murder case and the Chief realizes that the killer has plans for him.

Harriet's efforts to bring V.J. Trundel to trial are fruitless.The Chief does not believe they will ever get enough evidence to get an indictment,so he tries another method to bring Trundel to justice.

A mild mannered school teacher is accused of child molestation.

The Sparta police search for a killer and his girlfriend.But the case becomes personal when they take Althea and the grandson of one of the victims hostage.

The murder of well respected man turns up a shocking secret about his family.

An unhappy wife asks her lover to place a bomb in her abusive husband's truck.

An outlaw family seeks revenge against Bubba after he is forced to shoot one of them during a holdup.The chief wants him to stay out of sight until they are arrested - a suggestion that does not set well with Bubba.

Virgil goes to Philadelphia to investigate a friends death.And Bubba (reluctantly) fills in as Althea's Lamaze coach.

Sparta P.D. gets it's first black policewoman.

Someone is selling crack to teenagers and Sweet tries desperately to save a young addict.

Virgil is framed for murder and Gillespie travels to Philly to help him clear his name.

Sweet is heartbroken when an elderly woman who befriended him is murdered in her bookstore.

Virgil Tibbs returns to Sparta and joins the police force as chief of detectives.His arrival is met with resistance from police chief Bill Gillespie - who resents having an officer hired without his approval.Virgil has trouble adjusting to the small, antiquated police force.Tibbs' first case is a racially charged murder case that is soon complicated when the suspect is murdered in his cell.

The investigation into the brutal murders of a young girl and the suspect in her death, leads Tibbs and Gillespie to the son of one of Sparta's wealthiest and most influential citizens.As they come closer to the truth things become dangerous for Virgil.

An angry Gillespie seeks answers when an old friend is shot.And Virgil narrowly escapes death after trying to ascertain the real reason behind an old adversary's return to Sparta.Nan finds herself in danger after she finds out the truth about her new love.

A copycat recreates a shocking unsolved murder from the past.Gillespie feels threatened after Ted Marcus suggests that Virgil should become the Chief.The situation becomes more tense after Virgil criticizes Parker and Bubba's actions.

Bubba refuses to believe that a former teamate embezzled funds from the bank where he worked.And sets out to prove that his friend was framed and murdered.Harriet hopes that art therapy can help the man's traumatized son,who becomes a target himself when the killer realizes he witnessed the crime.

Someone abandons a baby at Bubba's door.

Althea does not realize that an old friend from Philly is hiding a dark secret, nor does Sweet who has fallen in love with the woman.

Racial tensions run high when a white cabbie is murdered in the bottoms.

Harriet's sister is murdered on the orders of the wealthy white man who fathered her child.