Blog - Pete Earley

NAMI Elects New Board Members But Not Without Controversy

(7-1-17) The National Alliance on Mental Illness elected five new board members yesterday. The unofficial results are that three of the new members are individuals with lived experience and two are veteran members re-elected to the board.

Their election sends a strong signal that a majority of members support NAMI’s efforts to broaden its appeal, especially to young people, beyond its traditional focus on only serious mental illnesses, which traditionally are schizophrenia, bipolar and life impairing depression.

Unfortunately, this election became contentious and was marred by actions aimed at swaying voters. In this day of social media and emails, the NAMI board should take a fresh look at its election process, especially in what it defines as campaigning.

NAMI officials will announce the winners later today, but I have been told by several reliable sources that he new board members are:

None of the four candidates who was campaigning on their self-named Focus on Serious Mental Illness platform was chosen, and another, who was an employee of the Treatment Advocacy Center, also did not win. In their speeches, all five of these candidate questioned NAMI about “mission drift.”

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Washington Post Joins In Campaign To Stop July 6th Execution Of Delusional Man

by Pete Earley

6-30-17) I’m thrilled to announce The Washington Post editorial board has urged Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe to stop the July 6th execution of a 35 year-old man with mental illness.

Virginia’s governor still has time to save a mentally ill man from execution

By Editorial Board of The Washington Post

ON JULY 6, Virginia is scheduled to carry out its third execution under Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and 113th since 1976. The inmate, William C. Morva, was convicted of fatally shooting two men — a deputy sheriff and a hospital security guard — in 2006. His guilt is not in question. What is less clear is if jurors would have sentenced him to death had they been aware of the true extent of his mental illness.

At varying points, Mr. Morva reportedly believed that he was meant to lead a distant indigenous tribe; that he was gifted with special powers to carry out an unidentified quest; that he was unjustly persecuted by local officials and the administration of President George W. Bush; and that his real name was “Nemo,” which is Latin for “nobody.” These are not signs of a rational mind, but rather one afflicted with debilitating mental illness. Mental health experts who assessed him after his conviction diagnosed him with delusional disorder, a serious psychotic condition similar to schizophrenia.

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Passionate And Civil NAMI Board Candidates Discuss ‘Small Tent’ vs ‘Big Tent’ Future

by Pete Earley

Candidates speaking at Convention

(6-29-17) The 16 candidates seeking election to the Board of Directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness spoke with passion and civility yesterday during the opening day of the group’s national convention being held in Washington D.C.

As anticipated, many of the candidates seeking election to five open seats spoke about whether NAMI should continue broadening its focus beyond schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and persistent and debilitating depression, traditionally identified as serious mental illnesses.

That issue has dominated this year’s election largely because of four candidates who announced they were campaigning on what they called a “Focus on Serious Mental Illness” platform. Their claims that NAMI is straying from its founders’ original mission prompted Board President Steve Pitman to write a letter before the election endorsing a “big tent” versus a “small tent” approach for the organization, which bills itself as the largest grassroots mental health nonprofit in the nation.

Veteran board member Janet M. Edelman did an excellent job moderating the hour-and-a-half session, giving each candidate five minutes to speak to a crowd of about three hundred. The candidates spoke in the order their candidate applications were submitted, which lead to three of the four candidates on the SMI platform being able to outline their positions early in the session, beginning with Dr. Robert S. Laitman, Laura Rettagliata, and D.J. Jaffe. Along with Mary Zdanowicz, they talked about how NAMI had been established by mothers of severely ill children (mostly schizophrenia) and argued that NAMI has strayed too far from its original roots. Rettagliata said NAMI needs to acknowledge that not everyone can recover and called on NAMI to focus more of its advocacy on demanding more crisis care beds and ending the inappropriate incarceration of persons with mental illnesses. For the most sick, Zdanowicz added, “hope is not enough.”

Two current board members, Adrienne Kennedy and Jim Hayes, along with Micah Pearson and Amanda Lipp, were among several candidates who spoke passionately in favor of NAMI embracing a much larger umbrella. Hayes said someone who is having their life impaired by anxiety is just as worthy of help as an individual with an SMI. He recalled how a NAMI Ending the Silence program presenter was credited with saving the life of a teenage planning suicide in his South Carolina community. It is one of the educational programs that NAMI has developed that goes beyond its traditional SMI role. Before the speeches, Hayes reminded me that Tipper Gore, former Second Lady of the U.S., had been so impressed with the Ending the Silence program (aimed at educating teens) that she had recently announced a $1 million gift to NAMI. Candidates Pearson and Lipp gave poignant speeches about their personal struggles and successful recoveries that fell outside the traditional SMI margins.

All of the candidate’s speeches were worth hearing and persuasive, giving members a wide range of worthy candidates.

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NAMI Joins Campaign To Stop Virginia Execution: “False stereotypes may have played a critical role in Mr. Morva’s death sentence”

by Pete Earley

(6-28-17) I’m proud of the national and state offices of the National Alliance on Mental Illness for writing a letter asking Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to spare the life of William Morva who is scheduled to be executed July 6th even though he has been diagnosed with delusional disorder. NAMI has joined the fight to have his sentence commuted to life in prison without parole rather than death by lethal injection. You can join the campaign to save his life. (click here to send an email to Gov. McAuliffe)

I will be attending NAMI’s national convention in Washington D.C. this morning to hear speeches given by candidates seeking election to the five open seats on the national board. Given the controversy surrounding this year’s election, it will be fascinating to hear what each candidate has to say. If you are attending the convention, look for me and please say hello.)

June 26, 2017

The Honorable Terence R. McAuliffe

Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia

1111 East Broad Street

Richmond, Virginia 23219

Re: Application for Executive Clemency for William Charles Morva

Dear Governor McAuliffe:

We are writing on behalf of the national office of NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) and NAMI-Virginia to respectfully request that you commute William Morva’s death sentence to life in prison due to his long term severe mental illness. NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots organization advocating on behalf of individuals and families affected by mental illness. NAMI Virginia is NAMI’s state organization in Virginia and the largest grassroots organization focused on mental health conditions in the state, with 17 local affiliates throughout the state.

As Chief Executive Officer of NAMI and the Interim Executive Director of NAMI-Virginia respectively, we are all too aware of the harmful impact that false, negative stereotypes associating mental illness with violence can have on societal perceptions and the willingness of people with mental illness to seek help. However, we are also aware that a small number of people may engage in acts of violence due to the symptoms of their severe illnesses. In some cases, like in William Morva’s case, powerful delusions or hallucinations may lead a person to act in ways they never would have otherwise.

Societal lack of understanding about mental illness is one of the reasons NAMI supports an exemption to the death penalty for people with severe mental illness. People with these conditions are more likely to be sentenced to death than those without mental illness due to false perceptions that these individuals are inherently violent and beyond redemption. We also know that jurors are frequently presented with inaccurate information about defendants with severe mental illness, reinforcing perceptions that the crimes were products of willful choices rather than the severe, untreated symptoms of their mental illness. Jurors often do not receive information about the effectiveness of treatment.

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Prosecutor Shows No Mercy: Flippantly Says Everyone Can Pay For A Diagnosis

by Pete Earley

Photo by Roanoke Times

(6-27-17) The Washington Post published an excellent story written by Ann E. Marimow last weekend about Virginia’s plan to execute a 35 year -old man with delusional disorder. I wrote about the case last Friday and efforts to stop the execution.

William Morva is scheduled to be put to death on July 6th unless Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe commutes his death sentence to life without the possibility of parole.

The psychiatrist who initially examined him determined Morva had a personality disorder, but said the condition was not severe enough to have impaired his judgment. When the case was appealed, the court appointed a psychiatrist who interviewed Morva while his legal team dug deeper into his background uncovering facts about his descent into madness previously not available to the court or jurors. The appellate psychiatrist determined that Morva suffers from three subtypes of a serious mental illness called delusional disorder. A neuropsychologist who reviewed Morva’s records agreed.

How did Montgomery County (Va.) commonwealth’s attorney, Mary K. Pettitt, who helped prosecute Morva, react. She wrote to the governor urging Morva’s execution and dismissing the new diagnosis, according to the Post story, which quoted her writing:

“With enough time and motivation one can always find an expert to say what you want to hear but that doesn’t mean it is true or accurate.”

Prosecutor Pettit

Flippant? Insulting? Impertinent? Using that same logic, one could say the same about the prosecution’s witnesses, couldn’t they?

But wait, here’s some additional facts.

Contrary to Prosecutor Pettit’s accusation, no one shopped around for the “right expert.” The psychiatrist appointed by the federal court was the only expert appointed by a court after trial and the only expert to have interviewed Morva and considered his complete psychiatric history. The Attorney General’s Office (who represents Virginia on appeals) could have had Morva evaluated by their own expert after he was diagnosed with delusional disorder, but it never bothered to go back to the federal court and ask for that evaluation. After all, it was only a man’s life hanging in the balance.

Section C of the the American Bar Association says:

(c) The duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict.

You decide.

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NAMI Sends Out Appeal To Law Enforcement Asking For Help: Medicaid Cuts Will Hurt Thousands

by Pete Earley

(6-26-17) The National Alliance on Mental Illness is asking law enforcement officers to help stop Trump-care because it will lead to even more individuals with mental illnesses ending up in jails.)

From NAMI National

Dear Law Enforcement Partners,

NAMI is grateful for everything you do to support people with mental illness and their families.

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate released the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) of 2017. Like the House health reform bill, it would drastically cut Medicaid, a program that provides vital services that keep people off the streets, out of jails and in recovery.

It would also result in tens of millions of Americans losing access to mental health and substance abuse care.

This is the worst threat we’ve seen to mental health services in decades.

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NAMI Elects New Board Members But Not Without Controversy

Washington Post Joins In Campaign To Stop July 6th Execution Of Delusional Man

Virginia’s governor still has time to save a mentally ill man from execution

By Editorial Board of The Washington Post

Passionate And Civil NAMI Board Candidates Discuss ‘Small Tent’ vs ‘Big Tent’ Future

NAMI Joins Campaign To Stop Virginia Execution: “False stereotypes may have played a critical role in Mr. Morva’s death sentence”

Prosecutor Shows No Mercy: Flippantly Says Everyone Can Pay For A Diagnosis

NAMI Sends Out Appeal To Law Enforcement Asking For Help: Medicaid Cuts Will Hurt Thousands

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NAMI Elects New Board Members But Not Without Controversy

Washington Post Joins In Campaign To Stop July 6th Execution Of Delusional Man

Virginia’s governor still has time to save a mentally ill man from execution

By Editorial Board of The Washington Post

Passionate And Civil NAMI Board Candidates Discuss ‘Small Tent’ vs ‘Big Tent’ Future

NAMI Joins Campaign To Stop Virginia Execution: “False stereotypes may have played a critical role in Mr. Morva’s death sentence”

Prosecutor Shows No Mercy: Flippantly Says Everyone Can Pay For A Diagnosis

NAMI Sends Out Appeal To Law Enforcement Asking For Help: Medicaid Cuts Will Hurt Thousands

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Testimonials

Press

About Pete Earley

Latest Posts from the Blog

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