A Virginia man convicted of killing a deputy sheriff and hospital security officer is now taking his appeal to the state’s Supreme Court in an effort to reduce his death sentence to life in prison.
In 2006, William Morva, 27, was taken to the Montgomery Regional Hospital while awaiting trail on robbery charges. Morva was able to escape a deputy’s custody and steal the deputy’s gun before shooting to death an unarmed security officer. He later shot and killed a deputy sheriff. Morva was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2008.
Morva’s lawyer took the case to the Virginia Supreme Court on June 4 and argued Morva’s trial judge erred by not appointing an expert to the case, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
According to his lawyer, the expert would have been able to counter the prosecutor’s case stating that Morva was not so dangerous that the death penalty was required. Those convicted of capital murder in Virginia can be sentenced to life in prison without parole; however, the prosecutor had argued Morva was at risk for escaping and killing again.
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