Sunday, July 29, 2007
Lawyer wants to ban symbols in Morva trial
His motions ask the judge to restrict uniforms and visible memorials during William Morva's trial.
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CHRISTIANSBURG -- A lawyer for murder suspect William Morva has asked a judge to ban visible sentiment for victims from the courtroom during Morva's trial.
Tony Anderson filed a motion last week seeking to prohibit those attending the trial from wearing any token or insignia supportive of the two men Morva is charged with killing: Montgomery County Sheriff's Cpl. Eric Sutphin and hospital security guard Derrick McFarland.
Anderson also filed a motion asking that law enforcement officers who are in the courtroom as spectators be barred from wearing their uniforms.
If Circuit Court Judge Ray Grubbs were to grant the motions, officers not directly associated with the trial would only be allowed to attend if they're in plain clothes.
Also, no one in the courtroom would be allowed to wear the black aluminum memorial wrist bracelets bearing Sutphin's name and the date he was killed.
In his motion to bar tokens or insignia from the courtroom, Anderson gives as examples "colored ribbons, distinctive jewelry, armbands, campaign-type pin on buttons."
Morva's trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 17 and could last as long as three weeks. Grubbs will likely rule on the most recent motions at a hearing Wednesday.
If Anderson's insignia motion is granted, people in the courtroom would also be banned from wearing T-shirts that have been made bearing McFarland's image. It's unclear whether it would include the more general, rubber "Heroes Live Forever" bracelets worn by many law enforcement officers and their families.
A few members of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office also have tattoos depicting a shield with a rose draped across it -- the nationally recognized law enforcement memorial symbol -- and Sutphin's name. It's unclear how the motion, if granted, would affect those.
Several law enforcement officers declined comment for this story, saying they couldn't talk about any aspect of the case until the trial is over.
Anderson also declined to comment, saying he didn't feel it would be appropriate to discuss the motion before it is argued Wednesday in court.
Any news coverage of the case could give defense attorneys one more reason to try to move Morva's trial out of the county, something many officers say they don't want, not only because they want to attend, but because if the trial is moved, many -- particularly in the sheriff's office and the Blacksburg Police Department -- will have to significantly alter their schedules to move with it.
In the motion to keep law enforcement officers from wearing their uniforms while sitting in the trial as spectators, Anderson wrote that "there is a high probability that jury members will be subjected to strong pressures of bias and prejudice against the defendant" if uniforms are allowed.
Another reason to keep officers from wearing uniforms in court, the motion said, is that the presence of a high number of officers might give jurors the impression that the defendant is dangerous and extra security is needed.
At Morva's March jury trial on attempted robbery charges not related to the murder charges, for which he was sentenced to serve 38 years in prison, there were only a few uniformed deputies in the courtroom. A few other on-duty officers wore plain clothes and sat in the courtroom.
Such motions aren't uncommon in high-profile murder cases nationally but are rare in the Roanoke and New River valleys.
In court papers, Anderson cites a 1991 Florida case in which a murder conviction was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals because half the spectators at a trial for a man accused of killing a prison guard were uniformed prison guards.
But, in a counter ruling on a similar topic, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in December that a family's button-wearing during a California murder trial didn't warrant overturning the killer's conviction. Family members of that victim sat in the front row wearing buttons depicting his image during the trial.
Recently in the New River Valley, family members and friends of Lori Pleasants wore pins and necklaces bearing the image of a butterfly at her killer's February trial in Radford.
The 25-year-old Morva, of Blacksburg, is accused of fatally shooting McFarland as Morva escaped from a deputy's custody at Montgomery Regional Hospital the morning of Aug. 20. He was a Montgomery County Jail inmate at the time on the robbery charges and was taken to the hospital for medical treatment.
Morva is charged with killing Sutphin the next day as Sutphin rode his bicycle down the Huckleberry Trail in Blacksburg as part of a manhunt for the escaped inmate.
Grubbs has also said he will decide at Wednesday's hearing if he will attempt to seat a jury in Montgomery County or move the trial elsewhere.
Defense attorneys have argued it should be moved because of extensive media coverage. Commonwealth's Attorney Brad Finch has said he believes a fair and impartial jury can be found in Montgomery County.
Anderson also filed a motion last week to appoint an expert on prison risk assessment and to introduce evidence on prison violence and security.
In that motion, Anderson notes that if Morva is convicted of any one of the three counts of capital murder he faces, the jury has only two sentencing options: life in prison with no chance of parole, or death.
The prosecution has said it plans to seek the death penalty on Morva's "future dangerousness," according to Anderson's motion.
But if he is convicted, the only society Morva will ever be a part of is prison society, Anderson wrote.
To make an informed decision when sentencing Morva if he is convicted, Anderson said, a jury will need to know at which prison Morva will likely be housed, how many hours per day he'll be confined to his cell, the amount of interaction he will be permitted with other inmates and what security measures will be in place.
