Half-Hungarian convict’s pardon denied in Virginia

Just a couple of hours before the execution of William Morva, governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe made an announcement that he does not give pardon to the half-Hungarian convict. The prisoner was executed on Friday dawn according to Budapest time.

According to Index.hu, there were no complications. Morva was revealed to the witnesses at 8:59 local time. He did not live with the right of last words.  After receiving all three injections, his death was certificated at 9:15.

Though many letters were sent to the governor and a petition was concluded, he replied that he and his staff examined the case thoroughly, discussed the matter with the victims’ relatives, policemen, local leaders, and they decided that the American-Hungarian man does not deserve pardon. Though the governor does not agree with death penalty as a process, he claims that it is a rightful method in this case.

William Morva was an American-Hungarian dual citizen, his father emigrated to the USA after the events of 1956.  He was sentenced to death because he shot dead two people during an attempted escape in 2006, when he was 24 years old. He was in pre-trial detention for burglary and robbery attempts. It was the day before his scheduled trial when he tried to flee. One of his victims was the unarmed security guard of a hospital, and the other one was a corporal who was sent to capture him.

Morva as a child
Photo: Getty Images Hungary

His law attorneys state that those murders would not happened if Morva would not have been suffering from a critical mental illness. He was haunted by delusions while he was escaping: he thought that he was in mortal danger in the prison. This statement was based on a psychiatrist’s opinion made after the death sentence. But the statement of the governor highlights that this diagnosis opposes the other three opinions, which were given by mental health experts during the trials, even though two of the professionals were summoned by the defense.

A campaign was initiated to spare Morva’s life. A petition was introduced supporting him in Hungary, which gathered 3885 signatures by Thursday morning. The EU’s ambassador in Washington sent a letter to the governor of Virginia last August. The Hungarian embassy joined him soon. Even the daughter of one of the victims, Rachel Sutphin asked for a pardon due to religious and moral reasons.

The opposing side, with Mary K. Pettitt, who took part in the indictment against Morva, however, argued for the death penalty, because they claimed that the new opinion cannot be taken seriously.

Terry McAuliffe was known for being a Catholic believer and an opposer of the death penalty. Still, two executions were carried out during his time in office in Virginia without any intervention from him. There was one occasion when he gave a pardon, when he changed the death penalty of a convict named Ivan Teleguz to actual life sentence five days before the scheduled execution.
As McAuliffe cannot contest again for the office of the governor of Virginia, he was not influenced by the future election. He did not say anything to the press until the publication of his statement.

Ce: bm

Source: Index.hu