Dennis My Friend On Death Row

The Norwegian journalist and author Jan Tystad tells in this book about his American pen friend who has been on Death Row in Florida for 33 years. The prisoner tells in his letters how it feels to be isolated for so many years, and how he has been helped by listening to music player and follow the news and documentaries on TV. Dennis has showed an unbelievable strength in such an environment, helped very much by classic music which he can listen to for hours. He has also developed great knowledge about the world and the politicians who runs it, by listening to news and documentaries on his small TV in the cell. Dennis is only allowed out of the cell for five hours a week to walk in the forecourt. He finds happiness and friendship in letter writing and fight every day to prevent that the death sentence is executed. He hope that the governor of Florida will change the sentence to life prisonment, which would mean that he will be a free man, the life sentence is 25 years in Florida.

The Norwegian journalist and author Jan Tystad tells in this book about his American pen friend who has been on Death Row in Florida for 33 years. The prisoner tells in his letters how it feels to be isolated for so many years, and how he has been helped by listening to music player and follow the news and documentaries on TV. Dennis has showed an unbelievable strength in such an environment, helped very much by classic music which he can listen to for hours. He has also developed great knowledge about the world and the politicians who runs it, by listening to news and documentaries on his small TV in the cell. Dennis is only allowed out of the cell for five hours a week to walk in the forecourt. He finds happiness and friendship in letter writing and fight every day to prevent that the death sentence is executed. He hope that the governor of Florida will change the sentence to life prisonment, which would mean that he will be a free man, the life sentence is 25 years in Florida.

Summers are always stifling in southern Virginia, and they're even hotter on the Mecklenburg Correctional Center's Death Row when Dennis Stockton arrives there in July 1983. Charged with murder for hire, Stockton insisted he was innocent, but his jury sentenced him to die. In prison, he begins keeping a diary and it soon becomes his lifeline, nurturing dreams of freedom and publication as an author. Mecklenburg's officials had always prided themselves on running a secure prison, but that left them vulnerable to an ingenious escape conspiracy. Though indispensable in the plotting, Stockton decides not to run, betting instead on a new trial and exoneration. The escape of the "Mecklenburg Six" is dazzlingly suspenseful, as they take hostages, don guards' uniforms, and, staging a monumental bluff, make history with America's first mass escape from Death Row. Mean-while, Stockton notes it all in his journal. After the escape, a Norfolk newspaper editor, William F. Burke, Jr., writes to the remaining inmates, seeking information on the unprecedented breakout. Stockton's diary becomes the most revealing account, and when excerpts are published, a scandalous portrait of Death Row emerges: bribed guards, marijuana plants, homebrew alcohol, weapon stashes, unlocked cell doors, and jailhouse sex. Overnight, Stockton becomes the most hated man in Virginia's prisons for his exposé. During the next eleven years, he survives plots against his life and endures subhuman conditions. Throughout his ordeal he struggles to find his voice as a writer, while battling to gain a new trial and escape the "monster factory," his name for Death Row. As Stockton's scheduled execution nears, the case against him begins unraveling, leaving readers to ponder the true nature of justice.

"My Friends on Death Row; Voices Silenced, One by One" is a book of letters from people on death row -- 31 of them. Most have either been executed or died from other causes. The letters were written by a wide range of people, with many different stories. At one extreme we find the letters of an admitted serial killer. At the other is a man who confessed to a large array of crimes he never committed. Some committed crimes of passion. Some may have been innocent of the crimes for which they received the death penalty. Helen listened to all of them with compassion and a non-judgmental spirit that allowed them to relate to her in a direct and honest manner. In her introduction, Helen writes, "the memories of many incidents have haunted me, and will for the rest of my life. I can still hear, for example, the boots of the official murder technicians stomping past the visiting room as I sat knee to knee with my best friend. They were on their way to test the electric chair in the adjacent room. That same chair would detonate by fire healthy living flesh. I remember him saying, 'I am half way to heaven.' A TV van waited outside to film the hearse. I was aware of the empty prison yard, and the un-empathic guards. I saw that my friend's lips were chewed up because he had promised to be strong for me. His final look will never leave me. Those sounds and images still haunt me."Helen's work with prisoners on death row began when she made a commitment in the back of a church to "love the unloved." As she later discovered, this was very similar to the vow made by another Catholic, Mother Theresa, which was to serve the "poorest of the poor." Helen's ministry began with a single letter to a prisoner on death row. Within a year, her list of correspondents had expanded to 50 prisoners across the US and in foreign countries. The most difficult part for her was losing so many friends needlessly. However, she was determined to live to tell about it, so that she could give a voice to those who were silenced on the gurney. That was her promise to the people on death row. This book is the fulfillment of that promise. Helen has written an introduction and a conclusion, but the bulk of the book consists simply of the letters that prisoners wrote to her. Spelling has been corrected, and in a few places, minor changes in punctuation have been made for the sake of clarity. But in these letters you will find the words and thoughts of the prisoners themselves.

About the Book The 1960s and 1970s were relaxed decades. In California, it was no different. But underneath the surface of trusting individuals and peace lay an era of crime—brutal crime. In Over the Bluffs, Lori Parker details the events of two young victims to such crime—and the results of what came after.

"Unworthy" is a life story of change. Breaking the chains of bondage and living in fear. Coming to the reality of life itself and even through the darkest of times, still being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel through all the heart ache, pain and tears that lie underneath. Life's not all cakes and roses, but it's what made me who I am. - Reverend Justice Knight

An insider’s account of a wrongful conviction and the fight to overturn it during the civil rights era This book is an insider’s account of the case of Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee, two Black men who were wrongfully charged and convicted of the murder of two white gas station attendants in Port St. Joe, Florida, in 1963, and sentenced to death. Phillip Hubbart, a defense lawyer for Pitts and Lee for more than 10 years, examines the crime, the trial, and the appeals with both a keen legal perspective and an awareness of the endemic racism that pervaded the case and obstructed justice. Hubbart discusses how the case against Pitts and Lee was based entirely on confessions obtained from the defendants and an alleged “eyewitness” through prolonged, violent interrogations and how local authorities repeatedly rejected later evidence pointing to the real killer, a white man well known to the Port St. Joe police. The book follows the case’s tortuous route through the Florida courts to the defendants’ eventual exoneration in 1975 by the Florida governor and cabinet. From Death Row to Freedom is a thorough chronicle of deep prejudice in the courts and brutality at the hands of police during the civil rights era of the 1960s. Hubbart argues that the Pitts-Lee case is a piece of American history that must be remembered, along with other similar incidents, in order for the country to make any progress toward racial reconciliation today. Publication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

As one of the most influential finance lawyers in the country, Dale Recinella was living the American dream. With prestige, power, and unthinkable paychecks at his fingertips, his life was perfect... at least on paper. But on the heels of closing a huge deal for the Miami Dolphins, Dale's life took an unfathomable turn. He heard--and heeded--Jesus's call to sell everything he owned and follow him. Thus began a radical quest to live out the words of Jesus--no matter what the cost. In this quick-paced, well-written story, Recinella shares his amazing journey from growing up in the slums of Detroit to racing through "the good life" on Wall Street to finally walking the humble path of God--the path of ministry on death row.