From: Attorneys for William Morva

Date: June 20, 2017

Press Release: Clemency Sought for Severely Mentally Ill Man

Scheduled to be Executed in Virginia on July 6.

Attorneys for William Charles Morva have filed a petition for clemency with Virginia Governor
Terence McAuliffe. The petition asks Governor McAuliffe to stop Mr. Morvas July 6, 2017,
execution because jurors who sentenced Mr. Morva to death did not know the truth about Mr.
Morvas mental state: that at the time of the crimes he was suffering from a severe mental illness,
delusional disorder, and his delusions led to his crimes. The petition states that, under these
circumstances, it would be inappropriate to proceed with Mr. Morvas execution, and requests
that Governor McAuliffe commute his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole
and order that Mr. Morva receive appropriate medical treatment for his mental illness.

For more than a decade, William Morva has suffered from a serious psychotic disorder similar
to schizophrenia. Mr. Morvas psychoses include fixedbut falsebeliefs 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;
that he had a life-threatening gastrointestinal condition that require him to spend hours every
day on a toilet and adhere to a diet of raw meat, berries, and pinecones; and that he was called
to lead indigenous tribes on an unexplained quest, that he had special skills and knowledge to
succeed in this quest, and that the remote tribes would recognize his leadership status from his
facial features. Mr. Morva has never received treatment for his mental illness, although
administration of anti-psychotic medications has proven successful in controlling symptoms of
people similarly affected.

In 2006, Mr. Morva was held in overcrowded conditions at the Montgomery County Jail
awaiting trial on charges of burglary and attempted robbery. His family requested but could
not obtain mental health treatment for him. Believing that his body could not survive prolonged
incarceration in the conditions at the local jail and that his life was in imminent danger, Mr.
Morva overpowered a guard who escorted him to the hospital for treatment of an injury. In the
course of his escape, he fatally shot Derrick McFarland, a hospital security guard. Early the next
morning, Mr. Morva was spotted on a local walking trial. When Montgomery County Sheriffs
Corporal Eric Sutphin responded to the sighting, Mr. Morva fatally shot him. Mr. Morva had no
previous record of violence.

The evidence of Mr. Morvas psychotic condition was never put before the jury that sentenced
him to death. Based on an abbreviated investigation conducted before trial, jurors were told that
Mr. Morva had a schizotypal personality disorder, meaning that he only had odd beliefs and
problematic attitudes towards the world. Jurors were told that schizotypal personality
disorder was not treatable and that Mr. Morva was unlikely to ever change.

Since trial, Mr. Morvas complete psychiatric history has been developed. The only mental
health expert to have reviewed this comprehensive history has determined that Mr. Morva has
suffered for years from a major mental illnessdelusional disorder. Delusional disorder is a
form of psychosis which causes people to be unable to distinguish reality from delusions. Mr.
Morva has never received any kind of treatment for his mental illness prior to, or since, his
arrest.

In recent years, Virginia Governors have a history of commuting death sentences of inmates
with psychotic disorders. In 1999, Governor James S. Gilmore, III (R), commuted Calvin E.
Swanns death sentence due to Swanns mental illness, and the fact that the jurors who
sentenced Swann to death were not told about his complete psychiatric history and its impact
on his behavior. In 2008, Governor Timothy F. Kaine (D) commuted Percy Levar Waltons death
sentence, due to Waltons severely deteriorated mental health.

Dawn M. Davison, a lawyer for Mr. Morva said: I hope that Governor McAuliffe will be able
to put himself in William Morvas shoes and feel what it must be like to believe in a reality that
no one else does and to worry every day that the people who are supposed to care the most
about you are conspiring to hurt you. The jurors who sentenced William to death did not know
how severely ill he was when he committed these terrible crimes. We have asked Governor
McAuliffe to commute William's death sentence to life imprisonment so he can receive
treatment for his mental illness, not punishment or persecution because of it."

Notes to Editors:

Mr. Morva has suffered for years from delusional disorder, a condition that has made
him steadfastly believe in realities that are not true. For example, in the years
following high school, Mr. Morva came to believe that he had special gifts and that he
had been chosen to lead a movement according to Native American spirituality. In a
more pronounced development, Mr. Morva began to believe that he was being wrongly
persecuted on a number of fronts. Conditions in the Montgomery County Jail where Mr.
Morva was held on other charges, were poorincluding severe overcrowding and
inadequate resources for mental health and medical treatmentand greatly exacerbated
his fears. He lived in a continuous state of panic and imminent fear of death. His
delusional condition led directly to the behavior resulting in the deaths of Derrick
McFarland, a hospital security guard, and Eric Sutphin, a Corporal with the
Montgomery County Sheriffs Office.

In August 2006, while receiving medical treatment at a nearby hospital, he disarmed the
deputy sheriff escorting him, and fatally shot Mr. McFarland as he fled. Mr. Morva was
at large until the following day, when he was spotted on a popular walking trail near the
Virginia Tech campus. Still armed with the deputys gun, he shot and killed Cpl.
Sutphin, who had responded to the sighting. Mr. Morva was apprehended in a thicket
near the trail later that day, and charged with capital murder. He was 24 years old.

Prior to his trial, Mr. Morva was misdiagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, a
condition characterized by odd beliefs, and considered substantially less severe than
delusional disorder. The prosecution argued that jurors judging Mr. Morva need look
no further than his actions and his words to know that he presented a future danger to
others if he was not sentenced to death. Just before his death sentence was imposed, Mr.
 Morva renounced his slave name and told the court that his name was Nemo(Latin
for nobody). He proclaimed that some day others like him would sweep over
civilization.

Investigation since the trial has revealed that people who spent the most time with Mr.
Morva in the years leading up to the crimes were spoken with briefly or not at all about
his behavior. As a result, the information developed for Mr. Morvas capital trial was
incomplete and inaccurate. Relying on a comprehensive investigation of Mr. Morvas
history, mental health experts have determined that Mr. Morva has suffered for years
from delusional disorder, a condition in which a person steadfastly believes and acts in
accordance with realities that are not true.