While the left line up to free Tookie and Mumia...

A victim of circumstances sits on Death Row in Mississippi: Corey Maye.

Here is a copy of an open letter to Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour: below, and here.

The Honorable Haley Barbour
Governor, State of Mississippi
P.O. Box 139
Jackson, Mississippi 39205(877) 405-0733

Governor Barbour,

The purpose of this letter is to bring to the attention of your office the matter of Cory Maye. Mr. Maye is currently sitting in a Mississippi State Prison, under sentence of death. The circumstances of how he arrived there are, by all appearances, deeply disturbing.
Certain facts about the case are not in dispute. Prior to the events of December 26, 2001, Mr. Maye had no criminal record. On December 26, 2001, Cory Maye shot a police officer carrying out a search warrant. However, the warrant being served was not for Mr. Maye, nor for his residence. The execution of the warrant involved a ‘no-knock’ entry, late at night. Mr. Maye relinquished his weapon, and ceased resisting when it became obvious that the people that burst into his home were law enforcement officers.

Subsequently, Mr. Maye was charged with capital murder, for killing a police officer in the line of duty. A trial was held in Prentiss Mississippi, a jury convicted Mr. Maye, and sentenced him to death.

Although that description seems pretty cut and dried, there are a number of issues about this case that raise profound concerns about Mr. Maye’s conviction, and most certainly, the imposition of the death penalty. These issues raise the question of why Mr. Maye was even indicted and charged to begin with. These issues create the sense that the entire situation is one of a terrible tragedy (the death of the police officer), grossly compounded by a heinous miscarriage of justice.

The issues I refer to include the following -

Apparent lack of intent - Mr. Maye apparently did absolutely nothing to place himself in the position of killing a police officer other than to be in his own home, asleep, on the night of the incident. Mr. Maye’s residence was a duplex, collocated with the residence specified in a search warrant being executed. The police entered Mr. Maye’s residence due to a mistake on their part - an act that they were not legally authorized to do, nor otherwise correct in doing.

Intensely stressful and confusing situation - the police were executing a ‘no knock’ warrant, a procedure that involves a quick and violent entry into a given location. It is entirely reasonable to believe that a man, awakened from a dead sleep, in the middle of the night, having his door broken down, could believe that his life was in danger. It is further reasonable to believe a man in such circumstance would react within his first few seconds of consciousness reflexively to defend himself and his family. Further, it is difficult to consider such circumstance without having thoughts similar to ‘there but by the grace of god go I’

Apparently overzealous and misguided prosecution - Charges were brought and the case was prosecuted by Jefferson Davis County District Attorney Buddy McDaniel. Statements made by Mr. McDaniel to the media appear to indicate his actions may have been more motivated by some sort of desire for retribution, along the lines that a police officer is dead, someone has to pay, rather than a careful weighing and objective review of relevant fact and circumstance
“Those of us who work around law enforcement officers and their families see the danger that they face every day and the loss those families and the communities feel when they’re taken out and when they’re murdered and their lives are brought to a close in the performance of duty”

“Every time they get in the car they don’t know whether they’re going to come back alive or not, don’t know whether they’ll be alive at the end of their shift or not. You can’t pay them enough, you can’t say enough about them. Having been with, having worked closely with them for thirty years, its not something that I can deal with lightly”Now while these are steadfast and probably heartfelt sentiments, and it is true that police work can be very dangerous, they have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the question of wether this tragedy resulted from the mistakes the police made executing a warrant, or from actions with criminal intent by Mr. Maye.

Did the jury vote based on their like/dislike for his attorney? - Post conviction discussions with the jurors that sat on Mr. Maye’s trial apparently included the following.

She learned from them that the consensus among jurors was that Maye was convicted for two reasons. The first is that though they initially liked her, Maye’s lawyer, the jury soured on her when, in her closing arguments, she intimated that if the jury showed no mercy for Maye, God might neglect to bestow mercy on them when they meet him in heaven. They said the second reason May was convicted was that the jury felt he’d been spoiled by his mother and grandmother, and wasn’t very respectful of elders and authority figures.If either of these sentiments are even remotely close to the truth, is it justice that a man is sitting on death row because his mother and grandmother spoiled him?

Extraneous ‘red flags’ - three factors not directly related to the events of the night of December 26th could reasonably be taken to have contributed to the outcome in this case so far. First, that a lot of the media reporting, the basis by which potential jurors would gain a sense of the event, admittedly or not, consistently omitted and/or misrepresented the circumstances of the incident, essentially parsing it to ‘cop shot during drug bust’, and he said/she said reportage of statements by the police and Mr. Maye. Secondly, the officer slain was the son of a local police chief - quite probably elevating the emotionalism amongst those involved with investigating the incident, if not aggravating a sense that ‘payback’ was in order. And lastly, Mr. Maye, a black man, was apparently placed, wearing a prison jumpsuit, in front of an all white jury, in the midst of all these other factors.

Aside from simply bringing the disturbing aspects of the Corey Maye case to your attention, Governor Barbour, I’d like to make the following recommendation, and make the request that you, and your office, act upon it with all due diligence. I would recommend that as Governor, you direct that a fresh, thorough, and as completely unbiased an investigation possible into all of the aspects of this case be conducted immediately. I further request that should that investigation reveal that there is substance to this apparently gross miscarriage of justice, that you bring any and all powers available to your office to bear to rectify the situation as expeditiously as possible. I’m making this request of you, in your capacity as Chief Executive of the State of Mississippi, as events to date, as I understand them, give me little reason to assume that the Judicial Branch of the Government of the State of Mississippi is capable of resolving this situation either expeditiously, or correctly.

I appreciate your time and consideration of this matter.

Respectfully

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