William Wilton Morrisette, III, who made Virginia legal history by persuading the state supreme court that he had been denied effective representation at his 2001 trial, recently reached a sentencing agreement with the Commonwealth that will spare him the death penalty.

In 2001, Morrisette was convicted of the 1980 capital murder and rape of Dorothy White in Hampton, Virginia. The case had gone unsolved for 19 years. In 1999, testing of Ms. White's PERK developed a foreign DNA profile that, when submitted against Virginia's DNA database, resulted in "cold hit" implicating Mr. Morrisette in the crime. In 2001, a Hampton jury convicted Mr. Morrisette of capital murder and rape, and sentenced him to death for murder and life imprisonment for rape.

In 2005, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that Mr. Morrisette had been denied the effective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase of his 2001 trial when his attorneys failed to object to verdict forms that did not accurately reflect Virginia law. The Court granted a limited writ of habeas corpus and remanded the case to the Hampton Circuit Court for re-sentencing before a new jury. This represented the first contested capital case in Virginia history in which the state supreme court had sustained a claim of ineffective assistance.

On remand for resentencing, a circuit judge initially reappointed the same lead counsel whom the Virginia Supreme Court had found to have been ineffective, but the attorney withdrew when Mr. Morissette vehemently objected.

After more than three years of negotiation, Mr. Morrisette entered into a sentencing agreement with the Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney in Hampton. Under the terms of the agreement, Mr. Morrisette would be sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder and rape of Ms. White. As part of the agreement, Mr. Morrisette agreed to withdraw his federal habeas petition challenging his convictions, and to forego any further appeals or collateral litigation related to his convictions and sentences. Mr. Morrisette also waived his right to be considered for parole and agreed not to petition for parole. Effectively, Mr. Morrisette was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, a sentence that was technically unavailable at the time of the murder.

In a hearing on Wednesday, August 18, 2010, Judge Louis R. Lerner accepting the sentencing agreement and imposed two life sentences. Mr. Morrisette will be transferred off of death row and into general population to serve his life sentences.

During his re-sentencing trial, Mr. Morrisette was represented by Jeff Russell, Doug Ramseur and Joel Mandelman of the Office of the Capital Defender for Southeast Virginia, Les Smith of Hampton, Michele Brace of the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, and Matthew Engle of the Office of the Capital Defender for Northern Virginia. Matt Engle had argued Mr. Morissette's successful habeas challenge in the Virginia Supreme Court, and stayed with the case despite two subsequent job changes until last week's successful conclusion. Substantial mitigation investigation was conducted by Jennifer Schweizer of the Southeast Virginia CDO, Ellen Shultz of the Northern Virginia CDO, and Deirdre Enright of the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center.