tinyurl.com/8kc4y -> crookedtimber.org/2005/12/12/knock-knock-bang-bang/
Update: Ive updated this summary to better reflect the facts of the case as I understand them. The guts of it is that Cory Maye is a black man on death row for shooting a white p olice officer dead. The officer was part of a paramilitary no-knock drug raid which broke down the door of Mayes apartment at 11:30pm, when he and his young daughter were sleeping. The building was a duplex and the officers had a warrant for Jamie Smith, the person who lived in the othe r half, and for occupants unknown in Mayes half. Its not clear that the officers expected anyone to be in that half of the duplex. Theres n o evidence that Maye had anything to do with Smith, and Maye did not hav e a criminal record. When the officers broke in, Maye woke up, took his gun and ran to his daughters room. When Officer Ron Jones entered the r oom, Maye shot him. There is disagreement about whethe r the officers announced they were the police as they broke in, and what the exact sequence of events was once they were in there. Mayes was tried, apparently was not well-represented, and was co nvicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
Parenthetical comments are Balkos later corrections as he learned more: Maye today sits on Mississippis death row, convicted of capital murder for shooting police officer Ron Jones. Its probably worth mentioning t hat Jones is white, and Maye is black. Its probably also worth mention ing that at the time of his death, Jones father was police chief of Pr entiss, Mississippi, where the shooting took place.
Sometime in late 2001, Officer Ron Jones collected a tip from an anonymo us informant that Jamie Smith, who lived opposite Maye in a duplex, was selling drugs out of his home. Jones passed the tip to the Pearl River Basin Narcotics Task Force, a regional police agency in charge of carr ying out drug raids in four surrounding counties. The task force asked Jones if hed like to come along on the raid theyd be conducting as th e result of his tip. On the night of December 26, the task force donned paramilitary gear, an d conducted a drug raid on Smiths house. The team didnt realize that the house was a duplex, and that Mayewho had no relationship with Smith,rented out the other side with his girlfirend and 1-year-old daughter. As the raid on Smith commenced, some officers including Joneswent aro und to what they thought was a side door to Smiths residence, looking for a larger stash of drugs. Police did have a warrant to both resi dences, though Maye wasnt named in either) The door was actually a doo r to Mayes home. Maye was home alone with his young daughter, and asle ep, when one member of the SWAT team broke down the outside door. Jones , who hadnt drawn his gun charged in, and made his way to Mayes bedro om. However, even if they did, announcing seconds before bursting in just before midnight, isnt much better than not announcing at all. Maye, fearing for his life and the safety of his dau ghter, fired at Jones, hitting him in the abdomen, just below his bulle tproof vest. Maye had no criminal record, and wasnt the target of the search warrant . Police initially concluded they had found no drugs in Mayes side of the duplex. Then, mysteriously, police later announced theyd found tr aces of marijuana. I talked to the attorney who represented Maye at tr ial. She said that to her knowledge, police had found one smoked mariju ana cigarette in Mayes apartment. Regardless, since Maye wasnt the su bject of the search, whether or not he had misdemeanor amounts of drugs in his possession isnt really relevant. Whats relevant is whether or not he reasonably believed his life was in danger. Seems pretty clear to me that that would be a reasonable assumption. It apparently wasnt so clear to Mississippis criminal justice system. In January of last year, Maye was convicted of capital murder for the s hooting of Officer Jones. Lets summarize: Cops mistakenly break down the door of a sleeping man, late at night, as part of drug raid. Turns out, the man wasnt named in the warrant, and wasnt a suspect. The man, frigthened for himself and his 18-month old daughter, fires at an intruder who jumps into his bed room after the doors been kicked in. Turns out that the man, who is bl ack, has killed the white son of the towns police chief.
The man has no criminal record, and police rather tellingly changed their story abo ut drugs (rather, traces of drugs) in his possession at the time of the raid.
Jesse Walker on the evolution of SWAT teams an d no-knock raids to the effect that through the 1990s the US began tu rning the military into police and the police into soldiers. This remin ds me of a line from a Terry Pratchett novel, where Sam Vimes, the City Watch Commander, is having his police officers pressed into military ser vice by Lord Rust, a power-hungry superior. He turns in his badge in pro test, saying I dont have to take this.
Radle ys done a good deal of follow-up on this case and so far nothing hes t urned up suggests that Maye is anything other than the victim of an appa lling travesty of justice. posted on Monday, December 12th, 2005 at 10:43 pm comments 1 Out of curiousity, are you saying that a)Maye shouldnt be in jail at all or b) Maye shouldnt be executed?
December 12th, 2005 at 11:51 pm 2 Patrick: A) may be acceptable. If Maye would have been no-billed by a grand jury had the deceased been an armed robber who had just kicked in the door, and if it is possible that Maye was not able to determine if the invader was an armed robber, and if the circumstances were such that he felt that immediate action was required to protect himself and his baby, then Im all for saying thats a damn shame and letting him go. Swat team that brings an unarmed, untrained local cop on a raid, now theres some negligence.
December 13th, 2005 at 12:07 am 3 I am a full-throated supporter of the death penalty. In this case I t end toward shouldnt be in jail but I am definite about shouldnt be subject to the death penalty. One additional point, Jones was not only a cop, he was the son of the police chief. The pressure to punish his killer was surely very intense. This case illustrates one half of the reason why no-knock and knock-and-bash warrants are so dangerous. The flip side is innocent people getting killed when the police think they are a threat even if they arent. These type of searches should be reserved for serious and immediate danger. They are another example of the stupidity that is brought to us by the drug war.
December 13th, 2005 at 12:24 am 4 I never thought the Clash were describing a real dilemma. Cant say for sure I wouldnt have done the same thing as Maye did if a bunch of unidenfitied guys ran into my home waving guns at me and my baby daughter.
December 13th, 2005 at 12:51 am 6 I vote for A It was self defense, and I seem to remember lawyers successfully defending on the basis of belief that a persons life was in iminent danger. Note too that they sent a SWAT team, not patrol officers responding to a routine (noisy neighbor type) call. They go in with the Shock and Awe methodry to catch the supposed wrongdoer unaware. In other words, they knew this was a risky operation to start with. Things like this are regrettable, but there is the negligence issue that Michael pointed out. All in all a horrible situation, but this guy should not be in jail to start with.
December 13th, 2005 at 3:52 am 8 Guys, two reactions are possible to Balkos report about Mayes case: immediate outrage, or suspension of judgment until all the facts of the case are confirmed. I dont know why Kieran (and others) rushed with , when is obviously a more reasonable reaction. By the way, Balko is already backpedalling and admitting that he got some things badly wrong.
December 13th, 2005 at 4:09 am 9 You start appeasing citizens theyll be shooting cops all the time. This is the matter of principle, you shoot a cop you die; The cops protect our freedom, without them wed have no freedom.
Teddy, Balko has been correcting errors to his initial account, not backpeddling. I think the biggest discovery hes made is that the police did in fact know the building was a duplex and had a searc...
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