Lawyers for Seriously Mentally Ill Virginia Death-Row Prisoner Ask Governor for Clemency

Lawyers for William Morva (pic­tured), a seri­ous­ly men­tal­ly ill death-row pris­on­er suf­fer­ing from a delu­sion­al dis­or­der that leaves him unable to dis­tin­guish his delu­sions from real­i­ty, has peti­tioned Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe seek­ing clemen­cy from his sched­uled July 6, 2017 execution. 

Morva’s lawyers say that he has suf­fered for years from ​“a seri­ous psy­chot­ic dis­or­der” that includes beliefs that ​“local law enforce­ment and the Administration of for­mer President George W. Bush con­spired to harass him, to arrest him unjust­ly, and to incar­cer­ate him in jail con­di­tions that would cause his death.” He also believes that he suf­fers from ​“a life-threat­en­ing gas­troin­testi­nal con­di­tion that require[s] him to spend hours every day on a toi­let and adhere to a diet of raw meat, berries, and pinecones.” 

Morva was sen­tenced to death for killing a hos­pi­tal secu­ri­ty guard and a cor­po­ral with the sher­if­f’s office in an escape from cus­tody. Because Morva was mis­di­ag­nosed with a per­son­al­i­ty dis­or­der before tri­al, his jury was nev­er told about his seri­ous men­tal ill­ness and the role that it played in the mur­ders. According to Morva’s lawyers, after hav­ing been tak­en to a hos­pi­tal for eval­u­a­tion of his com­plaint of hav­ing been injured falling from a bunk in an over­crowd­ed coun­ty jail, Morva false­ly believed that his life was in immi­nent dan­ger and that he need­ed to escape. 

Morva has been on death row since 2008, but has nev­er received treat­ment for his men­tal ill­ness, although, his lawyers say, ​“admin­is­tra­tion of anti-psy­chot­ic med­ica­tions has proven suc­cess­ful in con­trol­ling symp­toms of peo­ple sim­i­lar­ly affect­ed.” His men­tal con­di­tion has con­tin­ued to dete­ri­o­rate in his time on death row. The psy­chi­a­trist who diag­nosed Morva con­sid­ered his prog­no­sis for suc­cess­ful treat­ment to be ​“very promis­ing,” in part because Morva’s old­er broth­er was suc­cess­ful­ly treat­ed for a psy­chot­ic dis­or­der when he was around Morva’s current age. 

Virginia Governors James Gilmore and Timothy Kaine cit­ed con­cerns about seri­ous men­tal ill­ness when they com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of Calvin Swann and Percy Walton. Governor McAuliffe is out of the coun­try through June 30, but a spokesman says he will review the clemen­cy peti­tion and make an announce­ment when the review is com­plete. [UPDATE: Governor McAuliffe denied clemen­cy to Morva on July 6 and Virginia exe­cut­ed him that night. McAuliffe also denied a request for a tem­po­rary reprieve after Morva’s lawyers learned of prob­lems with the exe­cu­tion of Ricky Gray. An inde­pen­dent autop­sy report sug­gest­ed that Gray had suf­fered an an acute pul­monary ede­ma dur­ing his exe­cu­tion and had blood in his lungs while he was still breathing.]

Virginia is one of sev­er­al states in which leg­is­la­tion has been intro­duced this year to cre­ate a death-penal­ty exemp­tion for those who are seri­ous­ly men­tal­ly ill. While the Virginia bill died in com­mit­tee, sim­i­lar bills have drawn diverse bipar­ti­san sup­port from peo­ple such as for­mer gov­er­nors Robert Taft of Ohio and IJoseph E. Kernan of Indiana, for­mer Tennessee Attorney General W.J. Michael Cody, and Dr. Frederick J. Freese, III, a psy­chol­o­gist and war vet­er­an with schiz­o­phre­nia. The American Bar Association (ABA), in con­junc­tion with the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, and National Alliance on Mental Illness, have long called for exempt­ing per­sons with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness from the death penal­ty, and in December 2016, pub­lished a white paper out­lin­ing why those with men­tal ill­ness should not face the death penalty.