Cory Maye Awarded New Sentencing Hearing
by TChris
Last year, Radley Balko brought the nation's attention to the plight of Cory Maye. The police broke down Maye's door during a drug raid in Mississippi. The officers claimed they knocked, but having gone to the trouble of securing a "no knock" warrant, that claim is suspect. Maye, not realizing that the people invading his house in the middle of the night were police officers and concerned about the safety of his young daughter, shot an intruder without realizing he was shooting a police officer. The officer turned out to be the son of the police chief. The police turned out to have busted down the wrong door; their warrant was for the adjoining unit in the duplex where Maye lived. Maye is black; the officer and jury were white; and Maye, who seems to have been acting in self-defense, was nonetheless sentenced to death.
TalkLeft first wrote about Maye here, and followed up here. Thanks to Balko, Maye's case stayed in the spotlight, attracting the attention of Danny Glover (as TalkLeft reported here) among others. Balko's efforts on Maye's behalf also attracted the attention of a lawyer at Covington & Burling, who persuaded the firm to represent Maye pro bono. Balko reports on the results of their work:
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