Petition to take Cory Maye off death row

Vince Daliessio says: "Laura Denyes from whatisliberalism.com is circulating a petition for pardon for Cory Maye, who is on death row in Mississippi for shooting an intruder in his home in self-defense. The intruder turned out to be an undercover police officer searching for drugs. The officer did not knock or announce his presence, he did not identify himself as a policeman, and he did not have a warrant to search Mr. Maye's apartment. Mr. Maye made a split-second decision to defend himself and his daughter, and shot the intruder. As soon as another officer yelled 'Police!' Mr. Maye dropped his weapon and surrendered. The officer died, unfortunately. Do not let the Drug War claim another innocent life by allowing the state of Mississippi to execute Cory Maye.

"Whatever your opinion of personal firearms ownership, Cory was completely within his rights to defend himself and his young daughter against an intruder who failed to declare his identity, and who did not have a warrant. Please consider signing the petition to the governor of Mississippi for a pardon for Mr. Maye."

Both the liberal and conservative press are up in arms about this. Here's a Fox News column with more details.

That Cory Maye is even in prison is an appalling failure of Mississippi's criminal justice system. Police had no reason to be in his home that night, much less to break down his door. His case is just the latest in a series of tragic consequences resulting from the overuse of paramilitary tactics when police serve drug warrants.

But it's the details of Cory Maye's case that make it particularly compelling:

Cory Maye had no prior criminal record. He had no history of violence. Police found one gram of ashen marijuana in Maye's apartment (that's about a sixth of a teabag's worth). There was no "large stash," and Cory Maye was no drug dealer. In fact, Maye's name appeared nowhere on the search warrant, only his address and the phrase "persons unknown."

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