Virginia executes 1st inmate under more secretive protocol

JARRATT, Va. – Virginia has executed a man who killed a hospital security guard and sheriff's deputy after escaping from custody in 2006.

Thirty-five-year-old William Morva was pronounced dead at 9:15 p.m. Thursday after an injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. He had no last words.

It was the first execution carried out in Virginia under a new protocol that makes more of the lethal injection procedure secret.

Morva was in jail awaiting trial on attempted robbery charges when he overpowered a deputy sheriff during a trip to the hospital. He used the deputy's pistol to fatally shoot an unarmed security guard and killed another deputy during a manhunt the next day.

Morva's lawyers said his crimes were the result a severe mental illness that prevented him from distinguishing between delusions and reality.