The Cory Maye case (the war on drugs, racism and class issues, gun rights, the death penalty and more)

A week ago, Radley Balko, Cato Institute/TCS contributor type, called attention on his blog to a case he had heard about in Mississippi from 2001, which he came across when doing research for a paper on 'no-knock raids,' as used to bust suspects when looking for Ye Olde Illegal Drugs. The key parts of his most recent summary is as follows:

# A local narcotics task force conducted a drug raid on the Prentiss, Mississippi duplex apartments of Jamie Smith and Cory Maye on December 26, 2001.

# Smith was arrested without incident. Significant quantities of marijuana were found in his home. Both Maye's current and former attorneys say Smith was never charged for drug possession or distribution. District Attorney McDonald says he doesn't remember Smith being charged or convicted. Maye was never charged with a drug crime. So the only criminal charge of any kind to come out of this raid was the murder charge against Maye.

# Police executed the warrant on Maye's home sometime after 11pm. They first attempted to enter through his front door, then went around to the back. Maye was in his bedroom with his 18-month old daughter when the door was forced open by a cop other than Officer Jones. Officer Ron Jones was the first one to enter Maye's apartment. Maye fired three times. One bullet struck Jones, and killed him.

# Jones was not a regular member of the narcotics task force. He was a K9 officer for the Prentiss police department.

# At the time of his death, Jones was the son of the Prentiss, Mississippi police chief. Chief Jones is now retired.

# Maye is black. Jones was white.

# Jones was armed when he entered Maye's apartment, but his gun was holstered.

# Maye fired three times in rapid succession. After the third shot, the remaining members of the task force shouted "police!" and entered the apartment. At this point, Maye dropped his gun, put up his hands, and surrendered.

# Maye had no criminal history, no history of violence, and no prior drug arrests -- not even misdemeanors.

# The search warrants and affidavits list Jamie Wilson by name, and refer to him as a "known drug dealer." There was also a warrant for a search of Maye's home, but it didn't list Maye by name. None of the affidavits or warrants mention Maye by name.

# The only direct evidence in favor of a search warrant against Maye seems to be a confidential informant's tip to the investigating officer that a "large amount" of marijuana was being stored in Maye's apartment 24 hours before the raid. The officer also says he saw considerable traffic coming to and from the duplex at unusual hours.

# Immediately after the raid, police first said they found no drugs in Maye's apartment. Days later, they say they found a small bag of "allegedly marijuana," and three pieces of a burnt cigar, also containing "allegedly marijuana."

# Officer Ron Jones, the one who was killed, was also the sole officer who conducted the investigation that led to the raids.

# Because of this, we'll never know the details of his investigation. Nor will we learn the identity of his confidential informant. Jones apparently kept no records of his investigation into Maye or Smith. According to DA Buddy McDonald, all record of the investigation "died with Officer Jones."

# Nevertheless, judging by the information included in the warrant affidavits, it appears Jones made no effort to identify Maye, to make a controlled drug buy from Maye to corroborate the informant's story, or to do a criminal background check on Maye. In fact, there's no evidence that Jones knew the identify of the person occupying Maye's apartment.

# The gun Maye used to shoot Jones was stolen, though by all indications, it wasn't stolen by Maye. Maye says he got the gun from a friend. Documents show that the gun was stolen in Natchez, 100 miles from Prentiss, at least a year prior to the raid on Maye's home. The trial judge deemed the fact that the gun was stolen to be prejudicial, and withheld it from the jury.

There's more, but that covers the 'facts not in dispute,' as Balko puts it. A Wikipedia entry now exists as well; you can find links to the official documents Balko has received and posted there.

The blogosphere being the blogosphere, this has gotten a quick amount of attention, most specifically from the libertarian crew for a number of obvious reasons, but not just from them. BattlePanda has created a list of blogs calling attention to the case, and Balko has indicated he's been asked to write a piece for a national newspaper to further call attention to what's been going on. (Odd how the ever-hated 'mainstream media' world suddenly can be helpful at times, but anyway...)

Personally from the sound of it I'd say that Maye deserves to walk and has been at the least ill-served by his earlier counsel (Balko notes many things about her and that Maye's family long since fired her) and at the worst has been railroaded. The attention is interesting in any event for a reason noted dryly on the Wikipedia entry:

While researching related material, columnist and blogger Radley Balko ran across the case of Cory Maye and blogged his initial findings. Other bloggers across the political spectrum picked them up, perhaps assisted by the execution of Tookie Williams and doubts among death-penalty opponents as to whether Williams was really an ideal martyr for their cause.

The comparisons between the two cases have been suggested more than once, to be sure.

Discuss, debate, etc. here.