Cory Maye No Longer on Death Row!

And it's a grand--though not final by any means--victory for Reason contributor Radley Balko, who wrote for us an amazing and infuriating feature story about Cory Maye's unjust sentencing for shooting a police officer who burst into his home in the dead of night unannounced.

See Radley's blog on what happened at Maye's hearing this week. (Upshot: he will at least get a new sentencing trial.)

See Jim Henley explain, in ways Radley did not, why Radley deserves the credit.

And see Radley's detailed Reason feature from our October issue here.

This is truly fabulous news.

Comments

shecky | September 23, 2006, 10:46pm | #

Congrats to Maye. Let's hope some sane law enforcement policy will be the result of this whole debacle.

RandyAyn | September 23, 2006, 11:10pm | #

He needs to get more than just a new sentencing trial, starting with a review of the entire case.

And America needs to reexamine this entire process of government sanctioned home invasion, starting where the dog gets shot all the way up to the point that the "suspect" is either shot or charged with shooting a law enforcement officer.

There is no way anyone can justify this level of force, for what basically usually amount to misdemeanor possession charges.

Another sign that the media, sans Balko, is in autopilot stenographer mode.

James Anderson Merritt | September 23, 2006, 11:55pm | #

How to make the transition from impotent rage to potent rage?

aspendougy | September 24, 2006, 12:06am | #

Apart from the comments already made, he deserves a new trial, insane policy, etc., I wonder if the police do their homework. Did they know that he was alone with his 14 month old daughter, and that he was bound to be protective of her? It's still wrong to enter his home like that on principle, but it is doubly criminal when there is a very small baby involved. The police officer could just have easily shot the child.

Jim Anderson | September 24, 2006, 1:50am | #

To paraphrase good Dr. King, Radley Balko anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere.

Steven Schreiber | September 24, 2006, 3:18am | #

Best news of the weekend.

Doctor Duck | September 24, 2006, 8:35am | #

The police officer could just have easily shot the child

Only if she barked.

wayne | September 24, 2006, 10:52am | #

"Did they know that he was alone with his 14 month old daughter, and that he was bound to be protective of her?"

Obviously they did not know these things. They did not even know Maye's name; it was not on the warrant. He and his girl friend were listed as "unknown occupants", and there was no mention at all of the child.

The drug war is insane. It has destroyed a lot of what was good about America. A poster here on H&R (Tarran, I think was his name) wrote an absolutely eloquent opinion about the WOD. If I can find it (I copied it) I will repost.

Jennifer | September 24, 2006, 11:18am | #

I hope this is a true turning point in the WOD, not a one-shot deal. Too early to tell. Either way, Radley Balko is a shining example of exactly what the media is supposed to be--not cheerleaders for the government, but muckrakers uncovering the nasty evil secrets government doesn't want you to know about.

Thomas Paine's Goiter | September 24, 2006, 11:20am | #

Dammit.

Radley Balko for TIME man of the year. I'm neither kidding nor hyperbolizing.

Robert | September 24, 2006, 11:27am | #

"America needs to reexamine this entire process of government sanctioned home invasion, starting where the dog gets shot all the way up to the point that the `suspect' is either shot or charged with shooting a law enforcement officer.

"There is no way anyone can justify this level of force,"

And I still haven't gotten an explanation for why they do it.

Warren | September 24, 2006, 11:37am | #

Great News!
Cudos to Radley! Well done sir.
And attaboys to all the bloggers who picked up the ball and ran with it.

Mark B. | September 24, 2006, 11:58am | #

Wonderful news - after watching the Senate cave in to Bush and Co.'s bizarre taste for legalized torture, it helped make the weekend a little bit brighter. Great work by Radley!

Loved the title of Henley's blog piece, too. :)

rm2muv | September 24, 2006, 1:01pm | #

Ticketyboo, Radley!
Keep up the good work and someday we can end the violence and waste of lives created by the WOD.

StupendousMan | September 24, 2006, 2:24pm | #

Although it wouldn't help renters, home owners should look into steel core doors with steel frames. The locks should be at least three point. This would slow down ram entries if not completely defeat them.
I've looked into prices and they're competitve with mid-range sold wood doors.

For windows and sliding glass doors there are films that can turn glass into a type of safety glass similar to a car's windshield- very difficult to get through even with an axe.

I'm always struck by raids on dealers homes where the doors can be kicked in. It seems like hardening the entryways would be a no-brainer.

Isaac Bartram | September 24, 2006, 2:57pm | #

And I still haven't gotten an explanation for why they do it.

There seem to be two reasons.

One is that they really believe in it. If you really, really believe that these drug dealers are that dangerous then any risk is worthwhile.

The other is that drug squads pay a lot of overtime and other perks. A lot of guys choose the duty for that.

Put the two together and you get this kind of shit.

Mona | September 24, 2006, 3:45pm | #

It is an over-used cliche, but reading Balko's article I truly thought my head was going to explode. And keep in mind, when Balko wrote that piece for the October issue of Reason, he had not yet determined the identity, nature and views of the "informant" who provided the info for the Maye drug raid warrant. As Balko has since shown, the guy is a racist cretin whose favorite word would appear to be "nigger."

Kinky Friedman | September 24, 2006, 5:01pm | #

Thank God for Kinky Friedman!!

Elmo | September 24, 2006, 5:35pm | #

At last a blogger with a goal of fairness gets something done that nobody else would touch. Now how about a change of venue out of the state.

Mississippi must be "something else". The Mayor if Jackson, (mentioned above), is up on 8 charges, with possibly more in the works. Read about it at:

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060916/NEWS/609160368/1002

But thank goodness things have cooled down from 1914, when the Colorado militia turned a machine gun loose on women and children in a striking miner's camp on private property leased to the miners.

On the morning of April 20th 1914, Colorado Militia, (National Guard), troops fired into the camp, anyone who was seen moving in the camp was targeted

>>>>>The battle lasted 14 hours and included a . . [militia] . . machine gun and 200 armed militia; the tent city was destroyed. Of the 25 people killed, three were militia men, twelve were children, and one was an uninvolved passerby. The strikers were mostly Greek, Italian, Slav, and Mexican workers; the militia were sent by the Governor of Colorado and ultimately by, , , (get this), , , John D. Rockefeller, , , , owner of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.>>>>>

Read the rest of it here:

http://archaeology.about.com/cs/military/bb/ludlow.htm

PS: Kinky, you and Hamp Gandy would make a pair. When he ran for sheriff of Escambia County Florida they finally busted him for those 17 outstanding traffic warrants.

Akira MacKenzie | September 24, 2006, 5:52pm | #

"As Balko has since shown, the guy is a racist cretin whose favorite word would appear to be "nigger.""

With the exception of that term, when listening to the recording of the phone message I couldn't understand a gorram thing that degenerate hick was saying. It's nice to know that someone is fluent in Southern-White-Trash-ese and could provide a translation.

Personally, I'm still waiting for one of the right-wing squawk show hosts (e.g. Hannity, Limbaugh, Savage, etc.) to scream bloody murder about how a "liberal activist judge" might get a "cop killer" off death row.

I wouldn't put it past the fuckers.

Warren | September 24, 2006, 6:07pm | #

From TheAgitator:
Cory's life is far from saved. Thursday's ruling was certainly a victory, but we're still a long way from real justice in this case. There's still the possibility he could be again get death at the new sentencing trial. I think odds are against that happening, for reasons I'll get into later, but it's still a very real possibility.

I'm also a little concerned that should Cory's sentence be reduced to the death penalty to life in prison, his cause will lose some momentum. Life without parole doesn't carry nearly the same sex appeal as a looming date with the death chamber. I hope that doesn't happen -- I hope the people who've done great work promoting this will case continue to write about it and call attention to it. An innocent life spent in prison isn't a life saved. Cory's two kids will still grow up without a dad. And a good guy will still wrongly waste away his life in a jail cell.

Thursday brought wonderful news. But there's still a long, long way to go.

Amen to that. Let's keep this one on the front burner.

kevrob | September 24, 2006, 6:12pm | #

I don't know about the other two guys, but I'd expect Rush, who could have easily been the subject of a no-knock raid, himself, to steer clear of the whole issue. While he did the country a signal service by aggressively contesting local prosecutors' attempts to gut medical privacy laws in the name of the WoSD, he seems to have a sketchy grasp on the importance of the 4th Amendment, not to mention the 5th and the 9th.

I had a microscopic hope that his experiences would have changed his mind about the Drug War, but he has stuck to the prohibitionist parties' line.

Kevin

kevrob | September 24, 2006, 6:33pm | #

I don't know about the other two guys, but I'd expect Rush, who could have easily been the subject of a no-knock raid, himself, to steer clear of the whole issue. While he did the country a signal service by aggressively contesting local prosecutors' attempts to gut medical privacy laws in the name of the WoSD, he seems to have a sketchy grasp on the importance of the 4th Amendment, not to mention the 5th and the 9th.

I had a microscopic hope that his experiences would have changed his mind about the Drug War, but he has stuck to the prohibitionist parties' line.

Kevin

dhex | September 24, 2006, 7:15pm | #

"but I'd expect Rush, who could have easily been the subject of a no-knock raid, himself"

sorry, but uh, no fucking way in hell. really. let's not be naive here.

and big fucking ups to mr. balko.

Stevo Darkly | September 24, 2006, 7:20pm | #

Balko done good.

Eric the .5b | September 24, 2006, 10:14pm | #

Yup.

Robert | September 25, 2006, 12:56am | #

"There seem to be two reasons.

"One is that they really believe in it. If you really, really believe that these drug dealers are that dangerous then any risk is worthwhile.

"The other is that drug squads pay a lot of overtime and other perks. A lot of guys choose the duty for that."

No, I was asking why they use those methods.

Isaac Bartram | September 25, 2006, 2:04pm | #

No, I was asking why they use those methods.

Less than serious, but surprisingly accurate answer:

Because they've been watching too much television.

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Robert | September 25, 2006, 11:53pm | #

I've heard that one too, and I think that here once I even posted about a remark I'd heard some years back that police began to routinely handcuff arrestees because they saw it on TV.

Isaac Bartram | September 26, 2006, 10:18am | #

Robert

I knew that someone else shared my (non-scientific) opinion on this.

As near as I can tell, things that seem to have originated on TV:

1. SWAT teams. Before that awful 1975 show local police departments realied on minimal firepower to get their jobs done. In the absence of serious civil unrest (in which case the National Guard is deployed) heavy arms and military tactics are seldom needed in a local law enforcement environment.

2. Handcuffing all arrestees, in cluding non-violent ones. At one time restraint was considered necessary only for perpetrators of violent crimes.

3. Using the term civilians to refer to people who are not police officers. Before the 1980s cops knew that they were civilians too. Now they may have used "civilian" as a slang term for those outside the brotherhood but then so do a lot of other occupations. Now the term is in general use so that we have "Civilian Review Boards" being set up in communities across the country by people who should know better.

I do not know if military style no-knock raids originated on TV but I do believe that TV has shown police acting in a far more military manner. This behavior seems to be becoming more and more common in police departments.

We have come along way from Peel's principles, that is, if we ever actually practised them.

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