Virginia Supreme Court upholds William Morva’s death sentence

4:06 p.m.

(AP) - Morva’s attorney, David I. Bruck, said he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
    In the state appeal, Morva said his lawyers wanted to question Mark Cunningham, a clinical and forensic psychologist whose specialty is “prison violence risk assessment.“ He claimed Cunningham’s testimony was needed to rebut the notion that Morva would be dangerous, even behind bars.
    But the court’s majority said Cunningham’s testimony would have been about security measures prison officials could take to reduce Morva’s threat of dangerousness - an issue that goes beyond what jurors are supposed to consider.
    “Our precedent is clear that a court should exclude evidence concerning the defendant’s diminished opportunities to commit criminal acts of violence in the future due to the security conditions in the prison,“ Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn wrote. “We decline Morva’s invitation to overrule or ignore that precedent.“
    Bruck said Virginia is the only capital punishment state that does not allow the kind of expert testimony Morva was denied.
    “It’s somewhat a one-sided heads-we-win-tails-you-lose process,“ Bruck said. “This case was a chance to correct that, but the majority of the court did not seize it.“
    In a dissenting opinion, Justice Lawrence Koontz said prosecutors urged imposition of the death penalty because the jail escape illustrated that if Morva escaped again, he would not hesitate to kill prison guards in the process.
    “In that context, there is a reasonable possibility that in the absence of Dr. Cunningham’s evidence the jury decided to impose the death sentence, rather than a life sentence, based on the ‘fear’ that Morva would escape again or harm another prison guard,“ Koontz wrote.

———-

10:27 a.m.

The Virgina Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence against convicted murderer William Morva.

The majority opinion from Virginia’s highest court said the judge in Morva’s case did not err by denying Morva’s request for a risk life assessment expert. That expert is Dr. Mark D. Cunningham. Morva’s defense team wanted Dr. Cunningham to testify about whether or not Morva would put the lives of prison guards or fellow inmates in danger, if the judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn wrote the majority opinion for the court. In it, the majority agreed with Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Ray Grubs that Dr. Cunningham did not sufficiently demonstrate that his testimony would be specific to Morva, and the likely effect of prison on Morva, rather than a general assessment of how most prisoners react to being imprisoned at a maximum security prison.

Justice Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. wrote the dissenting opinion, in which he was joined by Justice Barbara Milano Keenan. Justice Koontz wrote that the majority was effectively adopting a “per se” rule about prison life risk assessment evidence, and that such evidence would never be specific enough to one defendant.

Morva’s appeal of his death sentence was an automatic function under state code.

Morva was convicted of Killing Montgomery County Sheriff’s Corporal Eric Sutphin, and Montgomery Regional Hospital security guard Derrick McFarland. The murders happened back in August of 2006, and spawned a manhunt on and around the Virginia Tech campus.

———

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A divided Virginia Supreme Court has affirmed the death sentence of a jail escapee whose murderous rampage set off a manhunt near Virginia Tech.

In a 5-2 decision Friday, the court rejected William Morva’s claim that he should have been allowed to present an expert’s testimony on whether he would endanger guards or fellow inmates if the jury sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

Morva was in jail awaiting trial on attempted robbery charges in August 2006 when he was taken to a Blacksburg hospital for treatment of an injury. He overpowered a Montgomery County sheriff’s deputy in the hospital and used the deputy’s pistol to shoot an unarmed security guard. The next day, he shot a deputy sheriff on a walking trail near the Tech campus.