The Mecklenburg prison escape took place on May 31, 1984, when six death row inmates escaped from the Mecklenburg Correctional Center in unincorporated Mecklenburg County, Virginia. The six inmates – Earl Clanton, Derick Lyn Peterson, Lem Davis Tuggle, Willie Leroy Jones, and brothers Linwood and James Briley – spent months planning the escape, which involved them overpowering prison guards and correctional officers and taking them as hostages, wearing correctional officers' uniforms and donning riot helmets to shield their own identities, stealing a prison van, and faking a bomb scare to dupe prison guards into opening multiple prison gates simultaneously to permit the inmates to drive to freedom. Following their escape, the inmates split into three groups of two: Clanton and Peterson fled to North Carolina, where they were recaptured the next day. Tuggle and Jones fled to Vermont, where they were recaptured after just over one week, on June 8 and 9 respectively. The Briley brothers hid in Pennsylvania, where an uncle helped them conceal their identities as they assumed new jobs at a car park; however, they were ultimately recaptured on June 19.

The escape prompted several security reforms within the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) and, in addition to leading to increased training for correctional officers, the escape led to the resignation or transfer of several VADOC staff members. The escape also led to several reforms for inmates, such as the institution of educational programs and work details at the Mecklenburg Correctional Center, although the Mecklenburg Correctional Center has since been closed. All six inmates directly involved in the escape were eventually executed. The escape was the largest death row escape in U.S. history.

The inmates who wished to participate in the escape held several planning meetings months in advance. Some inmates, such as Wilbert Lee Evans and Willie Lloyd Turner, attended the planning meetings but ultimately decided not to participate in the escape.^[1]

On May 31, 1984, six death row inmates escaped from Mecklenburg Correctional Center. Evans attended initial planning meetings for the escape months prior, but he eventually stopped and did not ultimately participate in the escape attempt. He and fellow death row inmate Willie Lloyd Turner remained behind, and while Turner helped some of the escaping inmates to break out of the prison, he and Evans also saved several prison staff members' lives during the escape, protecting them from other inmates who wanted to rape and murder them, like the Briley Brothers. Evans said he originally stood against a wall and stayed out of conflict until he saw inmates strip, bound, and begin sexually assaulting a nurse, at which point he stopped them and convinced them that it would be more difficult for them to negotiate for clemency if they harmed the guards they took hostage.^[2][3] One unidentified guard stated in a published report a few days after the escapes, "I owe my life, as do all the other [guards], to [Wilbert] Evans and [Willie] Turner."^[4] One of Evans's attorneys, Jonathan Shapiro, told the press, "This kind of behavior needs to be rewarded because it was the right thing to do. It's also right as a matter of policy to put the message out in putting down prison uprisings."^[4]

The widow of Evans's murder victim criticized efforts to paint Evans as a hero. As Evans's attorneys attempted to use his intervention in the escape attempt as evidence of his heroism and lack of future dangerousness, Truesdale's widow told a reporter, "I don't want this man, whether he lives or dies, to be a hero. He is not a hero. He is not a martyr in our lives."^[5] Truesdale's widow also questioned Evans's motives for protecting the guards, accusing Evans of engaging in a "ploy, to save the people to help save himself," although Evans's attorneys, a former administrator for the Virginia Department of Corrections, and a criminology professor from Virginia Commonwealth University who once worked as a corrections official insisted that Evans's motive did not matter, that "a life saved is a life saved," and rewarding Evans with mercy for his good behavior would provide encouragement for other inmates to improve their own behavior.^[2]

Governor Robb and the state prison director conducted an investigation into the prison escape; their investigation considered the roles Evans and Turner played in the escapes and protecting prison workers. Shapiro requested that the state parole board and Robb commute Evans's death sentence to life based on his role in protecting prison workers; Evans's legal team argued that his role in protecting guards during the prison escape demonstrated that he did not pose a future threat to society.^[4]

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All six of the inmates involved in the prison escape were eventually executed, all by electric chair save for Tuggle, whose execution was the only one to take place after Virginia inmates were granted a choice between electrocution and lethal injection. Linwood Briley was executed first, on October 12, 1984, followed by James Briley on April 18, 1985. Earl Clanton was executed on April 14, 1988, Derick Peterson died on August 22, 1991, and Willie Leroy Jones was put to death on September 11, 1992. Lem Tuggle was executed on December 12, 1996.

Attorneys for Wilbert Lee Evans attempted to use his role in protecting corrections officials to convince Virginia governor Douglas Wilder to commute Evans's death sentence to life imprisonment, to no avail. Evans was put to death in a botched electrocution on October 17, 1990.^[6][7] Willie Lloyd Turner was executed by lethal injection on May 25, 1995.^[8]

Several of the prison guards who survived the escape reported dealing with trauma in the aftermath, with at least one having to take anxiety medication and another reporting issues with insomnia.^[9]

• List of prison escapes