Morva
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William Charles Morva (February 9, 1982 – July 6, 2017) was an American-Hungarian man convicted of the 2006 shooting deaths of Sheriff's Deputy Corporal Eric Sutphin, 40, and hospital security guard Derrick McFarland, 32, in the town of Blacksburg, Virginia. He was sentenced to death for the crime and was executed on July 6, 2017. Morva was the last inmate to be executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia before capital punishment in the state was abolished on March 24, 2021.
The shooting deaths occurred near the university campus of Virginia Tech while he awaited trial for attempted armed robbery. A jury sentenced him to death on June 23, 2008, but some doctors stated that he had a serious mental illness, a delusional disorder that caused him to kill. Judge Ray Grubbs initially set the execution date for October 21, 2008. On June 4, 2009, an appeal for William Morva was made to the Virginia Supreme Court. However, the capital murder conviction and death sentence were confirmed on September 18, 2009.
The United States Supreme Court declined to review the case in February 2017. Subsequently, Judge Robert Turk set the execution date for July 6, 2017. On June 20, 2017, Morva's lawyers, on his behalf, filed a request for clemency with Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. They requested that Governor McAuliffe, in light of evidence concerning Morva's true mental state, commute his sentence from death to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They also urged the Governor to ensure that Morva receive treatment with anti-psychotic drugs. Since Morva's lawyers filed his clemency petition, several local and international groups and 28 Virginia lawmakers called on Governor McAuliffe to halt the execution of Morva. The daughter of sheriff's deputy Sutphin, one of the two men slain by Morva, expressed her support for his clemency petition and asked the Governor to spare his life.
Despite the efforts of Morva's lawyers, and many supporters locally and internationally, Governor McAuliffe declined to grant Morva's clemency. Morva was being held at the Greensville Correctional Center, in Jarratt, Virginia. Morva's lawyers released a statement on the Governor's decision. They stated that, although Morva lost his battle for clemency, "they hope by improving access to proper evaluation and treatment for persons living with severe mental illness, we can avoid future tragedies." Morva was executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia and pronounced dead at 9:15 p.m. on July 6, 2017. He had no last words. The drug cocktail used for the execution was "a controversial lethal injection formula that may have subjected the last prisoner to be executed by the state to an excruciating death equivalent to drowning."
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Upsurge - 2023-11-17 00:00:00
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