Va. Supreme Court hears killer’s appeal

William Morva, a Montgomery County Jail escapee who killed a deputy sheriff and a hospital security guard in 2006, took his appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court yesterday.

A lawyer for Morva, 27, told the justices that Morva's trial judge erred by not appointing an expert who could have countered prosecutors' arguments that Morva was so dangerous that the death penalty was required.

While awaiting trial on robbery charges, Morva was taken to Montgomery Regional Hospital where on Aug. 20, 2006, he escaped a deputy's custody, stole the deputy's gun and shot to death Derrick McFarland, 32, an unarmed security guard.

The next day, in Blacksburg, he fatally shot Eric Sutphin, 40, a deputy sheriff.

Those convicted of capital murder in Virginia can be sentenced to life in prison without parole, or to death, should the judge or jury find the crime so vile it warrants execution or because of the "future dangerousness" of the defendant.

The underpinning of the commonwealth's case against Morva was that he could escape and kill again or kill behind bars, David Bruck, one of Morva's lawyers, argued yesterday.

The expert, forensic psychologist Mark D. Cunningham, could have performed a scientific risk assessment of the likelihood of Morva escaping or committing acts of violence if sent to prison for life, Bruck said.

Without such testimony, the jury was likely to have "overpredicted dangerousness," said Bruck, a professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law and director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse.

For instance, Cunningham could have told the jury that no staff member of the Virginia Department of Corrections has been killed by an inmate since 1975, Bruck said.

But Steven A. Witmer, a senior assistant attorney general, said the court did appoint a forensic psychologist, a neurologist and a mitigation specialist. "It cannot be said there has been a fundamentally unfair trial," he said.

Justice Donald W. Lemons, however, said that if you accept the proposition that the issue was Morva's propensity for violence in prison, "none of the experts that were appointed were able to deal with that issue."

Morva is seeking a new sentencing hearing. No ruling is expected before September.

Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or .