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

Rating:
Summary: Real Life, Real Drama
Review: "Dead Run" is the best prison drama I have ever read, made more gripping by the fact that it is ALL TRUE. The bookd recounts the final prison term of Dennis Stockton, who was probably innocent and spent over a decade on Death Row. The first part of the book deals with the only successful mass escape from Death Row in American history, but the drama does not end there. Following that, by following Stockton through the system and finally to his execution, one becomes acquainted with the grim, crushing reality of the brutality and neglect of the American prison system.

On top of being a gripping tale of prison life, the book is a damning account of capital punishment and our prison system in general. By picking Stockton as a subject, a probably innocent man singled out by the UN as an example of a case of capital punishment that did not meet up with the standards expected of international law, the authors make a ringing statement against death penalty laws and procedures in the United States. Only the most rabid pro-death penalty advocate could read this book and not come away questioning their support for the execution of criminals.

A further feature that permeates the story is just how seedy and corrupt everyone and everything in the book are. The courts, the cops, the guards, the prisoners, the politicians - they are all part of the same basically corrupt world. Only (not coincidentally) the reporters and some of the witnesses come off as being white in a very grey and black world.

The book is a magnificent, cannot-put-it-down peice of work that I heartily recommend to any lover of a good non-fiction tale!

Rating:
Summary: Important subject, skeptical of authors
Review: A fascinating subject and book. My problem with it dates back to when I read excerpts of the original diaries of Dennis Stockton in the Virginian-Pilot, not long after the escape. Frankly, Stockton is a better, more forceful, less breathless writer than Jackson and Burke, but the authors have seen fit to rewrite and summarize his journals, and to claim authorship. They are good reporters, but they were given a gift when Stockton decided to hand over his fantastic, intelligent journals.

I'm deeply troubled by the fact that Stockton is _not_ given co-authorship credit on the jacket or on the title page, even though the best passages of the book are his writing, and most of the "inside" accounts of death row life are lifted and rewritten from his journals. It's disturbing that the true author of this story has been made into a mere exhibit by these authors. It's troubling to me that the book, based largely on the work of a dead man (and featuring big chunks of that dead man's writing) is copyrighted by these two authors, and that they're probably enjoying a full cut of the royalties. (I'd be happy to find out that they were sharing royalties with Stockton's family, but I'm not holding my breath.)

This is an important, essential book in the literature of death row. I just wish Dennis Stockton had gotten more credit for being the man he had longed to be -- a writer.

Rating:
Summary: BEST CRIME JOURNALISM IN YEARS
Review: 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 life on 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 crime 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 book many times and recommend it to all who enjoy a great yarn and responsible journalism.

Rating:
Summary: So-so; made criminals look like heros
Review: Exciting yes, but who wants to read a book which portrays the bad guys (evil men) like heros? I hated each and every one of the men in this book but the authors seemed to sympathize with them. I routed for the good guys but couldn;t find any in this book. Read something else.

Rating:
Summary: Impossible to put down
Review: I skipped school to watch the Stockton verdict passed down at the courthouse in Stuart, Virginia, back in 1983. It was evident to me, at 15, as well as to many others, that Stockton was a ruthless man and that he had killed Ronnie Tate. He was, however, convicted and sentenced to death for murdering Kenneth Arnder. The authors of Dead Run claim that it is "virtually certain" that Stockton was innocent of Arnder's murder. While this claim is extreme, what is certain upon reading their chronicle of Stockton's life in prisons is that he was not given due process. No reasonable person, when confronted with all the evidence, including that ruled out by Virginia's draconian 21-day exclusionary rule, could conclude that he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Stockton is a compelling voice and candidate for the "smoking gun" sought by death penalty advocates, the innocent man executed. Dead Run is a troubling book because it humanizes death row inmates. When other human beings become plausible to us, it becomes more difficult to revel in cruelty towards them. The authors walk a fine line between lionizing the denizens of Virginia's death row and chronicling their exploits. In doing so, however, they force the reader to confront the truth that a brutal murderer can be heroic in other contexts, that even the condemned can achieve dignity. There are a few factual errors regarding Southside Va. geography and a very dubious historical argument drawing upon antebellum Southern economics used to differentiate present day Virginia and North Carolina politics. When the authors, though, avoid editorializing and historicizing, they show a keen eye for drama and human nature.

Rating:
Summary: Important subject, skeptical of authors
Review: This book is a lightweight but interesting read. It suffers from the authors' inability to decide whether to focus on Dennis Stockton or the great escape. The reality is that the escape has little to do with Stockton - the authors' understandable fascination with the details of the escape rather detract from their focus on Stockton.

Stockton is an interesting character and I don't feel that this book really does the merits of his (unsuccessful) legal appeals proper justice. Stockton's appearance has a peculiarly haunting quality to it with his deeply sunken shadowed eyes and lined face. One cannot help but think that his disreputable former lifestyle substantially contributed to his eventual demise - he was a person that a clever prosecutor could easily portray in a very bad light.

The authors have privileged access to Stockton's own words and their account draws on this to give the reader an unusually authentic look into the strange world of Death Row. I feel that more could have been made of this as Stockton was a perceptive observer who left a substantial record.

However, the authors are beguiled by the great escape from Mecklenburg Correctional Center and dwell lovingly on its every detail. I'm afraid that I am not as impressed by this as the authors obviously were. There is some lionizing of the escapers, especially the singularly unattractive Briley brothers. The reality is that the escape was only possible because of the extraordinary stupidity of the corrections officers. Yes - the inmates had a fair degre of low cunning, but I would not elevate that to the degree of intelligence the authors imply they possessed.

What is truly amazing is the regime at Mecklenburg and Virginia's parsimonious funding of its corrections facilities. The state spent millions building Mecklenburg but then proceeded to pay the corrections officers so badly that they were clearly prey to scams and wheezes to earn a dishonest dollar to live on. It really does beggar belief that officers could allow inmates to continue to behave as though they were out on the streets with ready access to money, drugs, weapons and even firearms. It is a miracle that none were killed in the course in the escape - they certainly deserved to pay a heavy price for their foolishness.

However, the behavior of the escapers after they gained their freedom shows their real level of intelligence. They had no plan beyond getting out of Mecklenburg and their behavior was such that they were readily recaptured. Even the Brileys, the alleged master manipulators and brains behind the escape, behaved in a thoroughly predictable fashion and did little to keep a low profile.

Readers who are familiar with Supreme Court death penalty cases will meet many familiar names with walk on parts in this book - Giarratano, Coleman and others. The book is interesting enough as a general read but adds little to our knowledge of death row or the administration of justice. The only real eye opener is the way corrections officers, in their eagerness to earn a buck or have a quiet life, were so ready to endanger their own lives.

Rating:
Summary: Not what it purports to be
Review: This book presents itself as a story of a prison escape, and while it does include information about the Mecklenburg escape, that's not what the book really is.

The real intention of the book is to make an anti-death penalty pitch and to suggest that Dennis Stockton is innocent.

I don't have a problem with either of those positions (I am against the death penalty myself), but I do have a problem paying for a book that isn't what it claims to be.

Moreover, if they want to make a pitch for Stockton's innocence, they ought to be much more thorough and fair. Juries, judges and the governor of Virginia disagree with that view. Now it may be that they're wrong, but in order to make a fair judgment you need a complete presentation of the facts. What we get here instead is a lot of suggestions about possible exoneration but no serious analysis.

Still, it's an interesting story that I can't give a "1" rating to in good faith. It's an OK book. It's just not what it claims to be.

Rating:
Summary: Important
Review: This tells the story of an innocent man killed by the state of Virginia for political reasons, an event made easy and in all probability common by a law banning the reopening of a case to hear new evidence later than 21 days after a conviction. This applies even to evidence illegally suppressed during the original trial.
The book is extremely well-written, and much of it is exciting and suspenseful, particularly that dealing with the escape. Stockton was in on planning an escape from death row, but did not take part in it. New evidence of his innocence had just emerged, and Stockton apparently had enough faith left in the justice system to believe that he stood a better chance of freedom by not escaping. He may also have been driven by a desire to declare his innocence. He later refused a deal from the state of life imprisonment in exchange for ceasing to appeal his conviction. He also published diary entries in a newspaper which he knew would win him the ill-will of many with power over him.
This excellent book is marred slightly by the introduction's instructing us that "...there is no need to pity most criminals." Such a comment transfers its author's inability to pity to the rest of us. I'd be curious to know how many readers of this book feel no pity for the escaped murderer who arrives at the border of Canada, grows scared, telephones his mother, and - on her advice - turns himself in to be killed.
More importantly, the comment about pity leaves the debates over criminal justice within the framework of a battle between vengeance and pity - a framework in which the reduction of harm done by and to both criminals and the falsely accused can have no place.
The vengeance-versus-pity idea shoves aside the question of innocence-versus-guilt, and even where guilt is evident it shoves aside questions of societal healing, restitution to victims, rehabilitation of offenders, deterrence, and costs to tax-payers.
Everyone knows that crime is most easily and cost-effectively reduced by fighting poverty. It is unlikely that America's recent draconian measures will reduce crime in the long run. Stockton chose to trust the system rather than attempt an escape, but he was relieved to be killed when the only alternative was the hell-hole known as a correctional institution, a place full of flying feces, rape, murder, and abuse of every sort.
Lately, Virginia has been doing to juveniles what it has long done to adults convicted of crimes. The director of the dept. of juvenile justice [pun possibly intended] has resigned effective Dec. 1, 1999, following the death of a retarded youth in custody, the initiation of a self-defense program allowing guards to hit and kick kids, a girl being handcuffed on her way to a hospital to give birth, and poor conditions at the state's largest detention center so egregious that the agency's board decertified the place last week citing overcrowding and sexual misconduct.
Concern for convicts (innocent or not) is not in conflict with crime reduction. It is in
conflict with state violence, with the anger promoted by politicians even in the names of victims who publicly disown it. As long as advocates of vengeance are permitted
to masquerade as advocates of crime reduction, justice will be a sham.
This book is so well done that to find anything significant to complain about, I had to turn to the introduction, which the authors didn't write. The authors are an editor and an ex-reporter for the Virginian-Pilot, a Norfolk newspaper. Much of what they write is taken from Stockton's diary, transposed into the third person, fact-checked, and supplemented. The only thing I could fault these talented writers for is the occasional misplaced journalistic balance. The preface mentions "ultimate fairness - or lack thereof," as if the whole point of the book were not to describe unfairness. On page 19, the authors accept the term "monsters" as a useful one, without really defining what it should mean. On page 234 of a book describing the Dantean conditions of a prison, they write of a victim's mother's dealing with the years before an innocent man was executed for her son's murder: "It was like she was in prison too." Maybe she had said those words, but had she read this book? Did she have any idea what being in a prison is like? On page 251 the authors say that Stockton was "witness to a struggle between justice and mercy." He wasn't. He was witness to a struggle between evil politics and vengeance on the one hand, and the demands of innocence on the other. Justice cannot be opposed to mercy because justice should be merciful. Justice is, after all, an attempt - where all else has failed or not been tried - to reduce harm.
This book is not just an exciting page-turner. It also provides a great deal of useful information, including some shocking statistics. For example: "An October 1993 report by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee said that forty-eight innocent men had been freed from Death Rows across the nation since 1972, That came to a nearly one-in-six ratio of freed to executed prisoners. Of the forty-eight men, 52 percent 'were convicted on the basis of perjured testimony or because the prosecutor improperly withheld exculpatory evidence.'" Is this surprising in a country with the bizarre practice of ELECTING prosecutors to office - and voting them out if they leave a crime unpunished?

Rating:
Summary: My GOD!! What a MASTERPIECE!!
Review: What I wanted to know, after reading this simple, eloquent, masterfully written prose blockbuster is WHERE DO I GO TO NOMINATE THESE GUYS FOR THE NOBEL PRIZE??? Not since I read JAWS have I been so absolutely riveted!!! And I HATE prison books. And, let me tell you, I never would have thought that I would glean so many powerful management techniques from a book about prisons!! I have learned more about human nature and, you'll pardon the expression, it's "Dark Side", than I ever dreamed possible!! When I was growing up in Southern California I met quite a few prisoner, usually working in my mother's garden. Later, when I was at a large insurance brokerage in San Francisco we often had underwriting meetings that touched upon the subjects that this book treats so eloquently and persuasively. But, I have to say, if I'd read this book before I moved to Oregon I would have remained in "the life" and kept applying the valuable risk management techniques described therein to my business. I give the thing SIX stars!!!!