Dennis Stockton was executed by the State of Virginia for the murder for hire of Kenneth Arnder
According to court documents Dennis Stockton was paid $1500 to murder Kenneth Ander. Kenneth Ander would be fatally shot in Virginia and moved to North Carolina
Dennis Stockton would be arrested after a witness told police that he was at a meeting where Stockton agreed to murder Kenneth Ander. There was no physical evidence tying Dennis to the murder
Dennis Stockton would be convicted and sentenced to death
Dennis Stockton would be executed by lethal injection on September 27 1995
Dennis Stockton Photos
Dennis Stockton Case
Rebuffed by the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. George Allen in his final hours, Dennis W. Stockton was executed by injection tonight for the 1978 murder-for-hire of a teenager.
Stockton, 54, was declared dead in the Greensville Correctional Center death chamber at 9:09 p.m. He had no final statement, according to Wayne Brown, the prison’s operations officer.
For his final words, Stockton recited Isaiah 26:3: “Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed in thee, because he trusteth in thee.”
After the execution, Stockton’s minister released a rambling, handwritten statement he said was from Stockton. In part, the statement left words of comfort to his friends on death row, and Stockton appeared to declare his innocence, saying he was “a victim of crime in the worse kinda way.”
As the injection was administered, Stockton’s eyes remained opened for a moment, then closed. He swallowed once and lay still
Less than three hours earlier, the high court voted without comment to deny Stockton’s final appeal. Shortly after 7:45 p.m., Allen (R) announced he would not grant Stockton clemency.
A Patrick County Circuit Court jury convicted Stockton in 1983 of the murder of Kenneth Arnder. The 18-year-old was shot in the back of the head, both hands were cut off and his body was dumped in Surry County, N.C. Police said they believed the killing was drug-related.
At Stockton’s trial, Randy G. Bowman testified that he witnessed Stockton accept a $1,500 contract on Arnder’s life. Bowman’s was the only testimony to link Stockton to the crime. The man alleged to have paid Stockton the money was later arrested but never went to trial in connection with Arnder’s death.
Stockton’s attorneys had sought in federal court during the last week to delay the execution so they could present affidavits from three people who contend that Bowman killed Arnder
In the affidavits, Bowman’s ex-wife, his son and a former friend all said Bowman bragged of killing Arnder and provided details of the slaying. Stockton’s attorneys persuaded U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser to issue a 60-day stay Monday to hear evidence on the affidavits.
The state attorney general’s office provided an affidavit from the Surry County sheriff that Bowman was in jail during the four-day period from July 20, 1978, when Arnder’s mother last saw him, to the discovery of Arnder’s body.
That affidavit proved decisive to a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, which overturned Stockton’s stay Tuesday.
The appeals judges questioned the credibility of Bowman’s three accusers, noting that their claims had not been subjected to cross-examination and were not eyewitness accounts. They also pointed out that Stockton’s attorneys were presenting their argument 12 years after the trial
Such a claim, the court said, “reflects a formula for eleventh-hour relief that is increasingly common in capital cases.
“Last-minute stays on the part of the federal court represents interference with the orderly processes of justice, which should be avoided in all but the most extraordinary circumstances.”
Ken Stroupe, an Allen spokesman, said the governor sent members of the Virginia State Police to interview the Surry County sheriff Tuesday and to examine records to verify that Bowman had been jailed at the time of Arnder’s slaying.
“Governor Allen has concluded that there is no reasonable factual basis for intervening,” Stroupe said.
Stockton was the 27th person executed in Virginia since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976. CAPTION: Attorneys for Dennis W. Stockton, executed for the murder-for-hire of a teenager, said they had proof that another man committed the crime