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

The daughter of an old friend asks Bubba to arrest the man who knowingly gave her AIDS.

A man murders his business partner and frames the man's illegitimate daughter for the crime in an attempt to gain the man's business and his wife.

Parkers investigation into a purse snatching reveals an abused woman.

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.

Gillespie's old flame returns to Sparta to settle some business matters and see Bill. When she is murdered he travels to Gulfport and meets his daughter Lana for the first time.

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.

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.

The lyrics to a blues song recall a murder that happened 50 years earlier.The victim - Sweet's grandfather.And the only people left with the answers are the bluesman who wrote the song and a retired sheriff.

Chief Gillespie is fired by the city council and Sparta's new police chief Hampton Forbes arrives in town.Bill's last case with Sparta P.D. is a murder investigation in which a young boy has been implicated.

Wade and Sarah try to keep young Henry from being punished for a crime he did not commit and Forbes and his officers search for the two men who are really responsible.

Luann moonlights as a singer at a nightclub and finds romance with the clubs owner.Her happiness is shortlived when she realizes that the bartender is dealing drugs.

Bill and Harriet's wedding plans are interrupted by a sniper who mistakes Bill for Sheriff McComb.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Big city crack dealers invade Sparta.Eugene witnesses the drive by shooting of a friend and his offer to help the police identify the shooters leaves Harriet frightened and angry at Bill.

One of Virgil's classmates from law school is arrested following the death of his former girlfriend, but the man insists that her death was the result of her relationship with her psychiatrist.

Eugene hopes a well known minister can save his father from Death Row.But someone runs the Reverend off the road on his way into town and the Sparta police try to protect him and track down his assailent.Meanwhile Harriet struggles with what her part in her ex-husbands appeal should be and is even more unsettled when Eugene demands that she break up with Bill.

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.

In this humorous episode Virgil and the Chief arrest a man for bigamy.It soon becomes a polygamy case after an endless parade of wives come to visit their husband.

Someone abandons a baby at Bubba's door.