Dead Run: The Shocking Story of Dennis Stockton and Life on Death Row in America - Softcover

Jackson, Joe; Burke, William F., Jr.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802775993 ISBN 13: 9780802775993

Publisher: Walker & Co, 2000

Synopsis

In June, 1983, Dennis Stockton entered Death Row in Virginia's state penitentiary, accused of a murder he insisted he had not committed. For the next 12 years he remained there, during which time he helped plan the only successful mass escape from Death Row in our history (though he ultimately decided not to join the escapees), developed a career as a writer through a diary and newspaper columns, and continually proclaimed his innocence. His explosive diary entries - published in the (Norfolk) Virginian Pilot - about life on Death Row made him a marked man among prisoners and guards alike. Despite strong evidence of his innocence, however, Stockton was executed on September 27, 1995.

Dead Run is the stunning story of Dennis Stockton's life in "the monster factory," his name for Death Row. Written by his editor at the Virginian Pilot and the reporter who investigated his claims of innocence, it is a riveting true-life thriller and essential reading for anyone with an opinion on the death penalty.

About this title

Review:

Dead Run is the story of Dennis Stockton, mastermind of one of the most daring mass prison breaks in American history. It begins with his conviction for a crime he maintained that he didn't commit and weaves through his troubled life, his perpetual incarcerations, and his often brilliant, often comical escapades within the prison system. With frequent excerpts from Stockton's prolific diaries, the book reveals not only much about its surprisingly insightful protagonist but about the prison system in general, including institutionalized corruption, power-hungry guards, inmates, and prison officers. There's more than enough intrigue, action, and disturbing comedy to fill several thrillers, but Dead Run is a true story of a man who refused to sit still and wait for the hour of his death. --Lisa Higgins

From the Back Cover:

Early Readers Praise A Riveting Jailhouse Drama

"Dead Run is a gripping true narrative, remarkable for the manner in which it treats crime and punishment, and the issue of justice in this country, on a level that should trouble one's deepest conscience. . . . What gives the tale much of its extraordinary fascination is its rendition of life on Death Row as seen through Stockton's eyes. . . . Colorful, ironic and cheerfully mordant . . . [he] came to the writer's calling fairly late in life, and this straightforward and often pungently stoical record of his slow inching toward death was all he had to give us, before the state exacted its retribution. . . . It is a gift we should treasure, bearing witness as it does to Stockton's own appealing humanity, and the inhumanity of the law that destroyed him."--from William Styron's Introduction

"Whew! This is great stuff, ingeniously told, hard to put down. The first page hustles you through the prison gates and you don't get out until the last line. This is the sort of inside stuff that outsiders who have studied prisons for years just don't get, written as it is not by an outsider looking in, but through the eyes of an arguably innocent man whose brutally
honest account of what it feels like to be a dead man walking is both captivating and horrific. The two authors--reporters who covered Stockton's story--have done a brilliant job letting him carry the book. In a sensitive and unfettered voice, Stockton's story is told with such searing honesty that a reader wants to jump to his feet and yell, 'Stop this insanity!'
as he is being led to the execution chamber."--Pete Earley, author of The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker & Co
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0802775993
• ISBN 13: 9780802775993
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 299