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05-28-2005, 07:11 AM

Dead Run: The Shocking Story of Dennis Stockton and Life on Death Row in America FROM THE PUBLISHER
In June 1983, Dennis Stockton entered Virginia's Death Row, convicted of a murder that he vehemently insisted he had not committed. There he remained for the next twelve years, an unwilling cog in the gears of "the monster factory," one of the grim names he gave Death Row in his jailhouse writings. Soon after arriving in prison, Stockton lent his ingenuity to what became the only successful mass escape from Death Row in American history. Ironically, he remained in his cell and recorded the audacious breakout in his diary, hoping and trusting that the system would someday grant him a new trial. When the explosive journal was published weeks later in Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot, Stockton became a marked man among prisoners, guards, and authorities for blowing the whistle on their corrupt world. This calumny only strengthened Stockton's resolve to clear his name, and spurred him to find his voice and ultimate deliverance as a writer. Yet, even as evidence of his innocence mounted, Stockton was executed on September 27, 1995. Dead Run is the stunning account of Dennis Stockton's life, using lengthy excerpts from his prison writings and told with harrowing immediacy by William F. Burke Jr., Stockton's editor at The Virginian-Pilot, and Joe Jackson, the reporter who investigated his unshakable claims of innocence. It is a riveting true-life thriller and an unforgettable, searing portrait of life on Death Row in America today.

FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
A career criminal who was in and out of prison from the time he was caught passing bad checks as a teenager, Dennis Stockton was no angel. But, as journalists Jackson and Burke convincingly demonstrate, he was wrongly executed for a murder he didn't commit. In this chilling account drawing on interviews and Stockton's own death row writings (some of which they published in their newspaper, the Virginia Pilot), the authors paint a picture of a prison system as inept as it is corrupt and cruel, and of justice severely perverted. The man who allegedly hired Stockton to kill a North Carolina teenager in 1978 was never prosecuted. And the sole witness, himself a convict, who testified against Stockton was later heard bragging of committing the murder himself. But Virginia, where Stockton was tried, prohibits introducing new evidence more than 21 days after conviction. Stockton also brought trouble on himself with his prison diary and his decision to publish parts of it in the Virginia Pilot, the state's largest newspaper. In the diary, he revealed inside information about the escape of six fellow death row inmates on Memorial Day weekend 1984. Stockton related that underpaid and often corrupt guards were either incompetent or actively assisted the prisoners (all of whom were captured within three weeks). The revelations enraged prison guards and inmates, putting Stockton's life in danger, and embarrassed the state, in all likelihood ending any hopes Stockton might have had for clemency. Burke and Jackson offer a gripping inside look at the life usually hidden behind prison walls and a frightening indictment of the criminal justice system. 25 illus. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Dennis Stockton spent much of his time on Death Row keeping a diary recounting not only his own daily activities but those of his fellow inmates and guards. Included in that diary were the details of how he helped six inmates plan a successful escape in 1984 from the "escape-proof" Mecklenburg Correctional Center in Virginia. (Stockton stayed behind to seek a new trial.) The diary is only quoted toward the end of the book, but by then readers will have come to know the other residents of Death Row, and the diary entries will make more sense. The writing is well organized and crisp but filled with the details that make both the inmates and their crimes more real. That many doubted Stockton's guilt makes his execution by lethal injection almost as frightening as the murder he was accused of committing. The authors, both writers for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, published Stockton's writings during his 12 years on Death Row, and their familiarity with the case shines through in this tightly woven volume.--Christine A. Moesch, Buffalo & Erie Cty. P.L., NY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Steve Weinberg - Christian Science Monitor
Although not well known outside of Virginia and North Carolina during his lifetime, Stockton is quite likely to become famous posthumously as a result of this superb book by two Virginia Beach journalists.
Kirkus Reviews
Virginian-Pilot editor Burke and writer Jackson produce a dark epic chronicling the only multiple escape from death row, and the redemption of a man condemned for a killing likely not his own doing, in that rare volume that is at once a taut, gripping true-crime ride and a disturbing indictment of the nether regions of criminal justice. Career criminal Dennis Stockton received a 1983 death sentence for a 1978 murder only tenuously tied to him, and was sent to Mecklenberg, a supposedly "escape-proof" prison, in reality deeply compromised by collusion between cowed guards and convicted killers with nothing to lose. Led by the notoriously vicious Briley brothers, six prisoners pulled off an astounding escape that involved capturing a dozen guards and forcing an officer to simulate a bomb scare; yet Stockton stayed behind, in hopes of proving his innocence in court. Later, he sent his "Death Row Diary" to the authors; his disclosures amplified the escape scandal, and embarrassed officials sent Stockton on a long tour of Virginia's worst penal institutions. Stockton was executed in 1995 in the midst of growing attention to unearthed discrepancies in his case, and evidence including signed affidavits asserting the real killer's identity. This grim tale is transformed into something more weighty than mere violent pulp by its audacious portrayals of the prisoners; without minimizing their ghastly deeds, Jackson and Burke evoke their doomed humanity and the strength they needed to survive the elaborate terrors of a death sentence. The centerpiece of the escape plot is rendered authentically, as great ingenuity in the face of desperate odds—an irresistible drama. And Stockton himselfemerges memorably, an incorrigible crook transformed through craft and late bravery. Though the authors' prose is brisk and engaging, the generous implication throughout is that this self-taught writer's perceptions and observations are paramount. Even jaded readers, attentions captured by the pyrotechnical escape plot, will recognize the likely injustice in Stockton's state-sanctioned fate.

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Chris, a police officer., April 20, 2000, http://images.barnesandnoble.com.edgesuite.net/pimages/gresources/5stars.gifhttp://a1055.g.akamai.net/f/1055/1401/5h/search.barnesandnoble.com/gresources/cleardot.gif Wish there was more....
As a police officer and avid supporter of the death penalty I found myself questioning our criminal justice system like I have so many times before. This book held my attention till the very last word. I kept turning the pages at the end, hoping for more. However there will be no more books from a man that the state wouldn't listen to. This book is excellent reading and I urge anyone who would like to read about what it is like livingand dying on death row to read this book.
Also recommended: The Choirboys by:Wambaugh, The I-5 killer, The stranger beside me both by:Ann Rule, Shallow Grave in Trinity County by:Farrell, Cop Shot and Good Cop, Bad Cop both by McCalary

Jack Olsen (jack1olsen@aol.com), author of 30 books, 10 on crime., November 4, 1999, http://images.barnesandnoble.com.edgesuite.net/pimages/gresources/5stars.gifhttp://a1055.g.akamai.net/f/1055/1401/5h/search.barnesandnoble.com/gresources/cleardot.gif The Best Crime Journalism in Years
DEAD RUN is the best work of crime journalism I've read since THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG. It transcends the increasingly shabby 'true crime' genre. It is a superb study of Death Row. It is the latest proof that the land of the free continues to execute the innocent. It is a jailbreak story that rivals PAPILLON. It is American history at its most elevated, and yet there's not a stodgy line. Social context is never forgotten, but the narrative line chugs ahead like a runaway locomotive. I will re-read this work many times.
Also recommended: ALL GOD'S CHILDREN by Fox Butterfield WHY THEY KILL by Richard Rhodes