The Strange Case of Cory Maye- THIS BLACK MAN...should not be on Death Row.

[Goddess IsIs Akkebala]

Dear Kweisi Mfume, Maxine Waters, Min. Farrakhan and Others

THIS BLACK MAN...should not be on Death Row.

I am trying desperately to find out what we as people can do about this.

The Strange Case of Cory Maye
By Keith Boykin
December 15, 2005 01:03 PM
in politics

Picture this. You're a black man asleep in bed at home in Mississippi. It's the night after Christmas 2001, and no one else is in the house but your 18-month-old daughter. You hear a loud thud and suddenly the sound of feet stomping on the floor outside your bedroom door. You grab your gun. A white man bursts into your bedroom with a gun. You shoot first. He dies. Is this self-defense or murder?

Let me add a few facts in favor of the prosecution. The white man lying on your bedroom floor is a police officer. Moreover, he's the son of the police chief. And his fellow officers say he identified himself as he was conducting a lawful warranted search of the apartment for drugs. Police say they found traces of drugs in the apartment.

But here are the facts in favor of the defendant. Even if the police officer did identify himself, the defendant was asleep and never heard it. The warrant the police used did not list Cory Maye as a suspect but instead listed a different suspect in a different apartment in the building. There were no drugs found in Maye's apartment that day, although the police later changed their story to claim that they found traces of drugs. The defendant had no prior criminal record. As a black man in Mississippi, he feared for his life and the life of his young daughter. Yet the defendant was convicted of murder by a mostly white jury and sentenced to death. The defendant, Cory Maye, now sits on death row.

Should Cory Maye Die?

The question is: Should Cory Maye die?

Radley Balko has been blogging about this case for some time, and Terrance at Republic of T convinced me to look into it.

Even accepting the police version of the facts, this case does not amount to murder. At worst, this is a case of negligent homicide, but even that argument is weak considering the defendant fired his weapon in his own home with the reasonable fear that his life and his daughter's life were being threatened.

For all the tough talk from the right-wing about the right to bear arms and protect your home, it's shocking that they haven't taken up the case of Cory Maye. Is it because he's young, black and poor in Mississippi? What if a rich white man in Virginia tried to defend himself against a mistaken police intrusion in his house? Oh, never mind, the police never seem to make those mistakes with rich white folks.

I'm not convinced Cory Maye should be in jail at all, much less on death row awaiting execution by lethal injection. For the record, I remain opposed to capital punishment in all circumstances, whether the defendant is Cory Maye, Stanley Tookie Williams, Charles Manson, Saddam Hussein or Adolph Hitler.

But this case is special. If you were concerned about the case of Stanley Tookie Williams, then you ought to be concerned about the case of Cory Maye. And if you weren't concerned about the death penalty for the founder of the Crips gang, then you ought to be concerned about killing a man who simply sought to defend himself in his own home.

Cory Maye should not be killed. No civilized society would execute a man for using reasonable force to protect his home and his family from intrusion. But then, is our society really all that civilized in the first place?

Warrant on Maye's residence (PDF)
http://www.theagitator.com/maye.warrant.pdf

Affidavit on Maye's residence (PDF)
http://www.theagitator.com/maye.affidavit.pdf

Facts on Maye's residence (PDF)
http://www.theagitator.com/maye.underlying.pdf

Post-raid evidence sheet on Maye's residence (PDF)
http://www.theagitator.com/maye.evidence.pdf

Warrant on Smith's residence (PDF)

http://www.theagitator.com/smith.warrant.pdf

Affidavit on Smith residence (PDF)
http://www.theagitator.com/smith.affidavit.pdf


Underlying facts on Smith residence
http://www.theagitator.com/smith.underlying.pdf

Post-raid evidence sheet on Smith residence
http://www.theagitator.com/smith.evidence.pdf


______________

*Thank you, Keith Boykin for bringing this to so many people's attention.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Goddess IsIs Akkebala]

Beloved Ones:

I do not know about ALL but this is making me ill, to see this system PIC_A_Nigga as they said during slavery and now.

The europeans (humans only) are carnivores, loving the BAR-B-Quing of Afrikans, burning and smell of flesh.

What do we do now Beloved Ones?

Here is loving Afrika

Goddess Isis

[WombanAuset]

*takes afrikan hips and bumps this back up to the top*

[Shawnfury2003]

wow thats crazy. not long after the tookie case. well I guess they see it as "back to work with the ethnic cleansing"....is it possible that this can be next months action alert?...i know that technically hes not a political prisoner but i guess literally he can fit in the category b/c hes a prisoner as a result of politics......ive copied and pasted this to people i know...helping to get the word out.....let me know wassup the idea...peace

[Mosi Ngozi]

This Bro.Chris Maye does not belong on death row from looking at the pdf documents supplied along with this post. I am against the death penalty and always will be since it is racially biased and it legal genocide of my Afrikan brothers.

[Im The Truth]

Bump it up

[Revolutionary_Student]

Dear Kweisi Mfume, Maxine Waters, Min. Farrakhan and Others

THIS BLACK MAN...should not be on Death Row.

I am trying desperately to find out what we as people can do about this.

The Strange Case of Cory Maye
By Keith Boykin
December 15, 2005 01:03 PM
in politics

Picture this. You're a black man asleep in bed at home in Mississippi. It's the night after Christmas 2001, and no one else is in the house but your 18-month-old daughter. You hear a loud thud and suddenly the sound of feet stomping on the floor outside your bedroom door. You grab your gun. A white man bursts into your bedroom with a gun. You shoot first. He dies. Is this self-defense or murder?

Let me add a few facts in favor of the prosecution. The white man lying on your bedroom floor is a police officer. Moreover, he's the son of the police chief. And his fellow officers say he identified himself as he was conducting a lawful warranted search of the apartment for drugs. Police say they found traces of drugs in the apartment.

But here are the facts in favor of the defendant. Even if the police officer did identify himself, the defendant was asleep and never heard it. The warrant the police used did not list Cory Maye as a suspect but instead listed a different suspect in a different apartment in the building. There were no drugs found in Maye's apartment that day, although the police later changed their story to claim that they found traces of drugs. The defendant had no prior criminal record. As a black man in Mississippi, he feared for his life and the life of his young daughter. Yet the defendant was convicted of murder by a mostly white jury and sentenced to death. The defendant, Cory Maye, now sits on death row.

Should Cory Maye Die?

The question is: Should Cory Maye die?

Radley Balko has been blogging about this case for some time, and Terrance at Republic of T convinced me to look into it.

Even accepting the police version of the facts, this case does not amount to murder. At worst, this is a case of negligent homicide, but even that argument is weak considering the defendant fired his weapon in his own home with the reasonable fear that his life and his daughter's life were being threatened.

For all the tough talk from the right-wing about the right to bear arms and protect your home, it's shocking that they haven't taken up the case of Cory Maye. Is it because he's young, black and poor in Mississippi? What if a rich white man in Virginia tried to defend himself against a mistaken police intrusion in his house? Oh, never mind, the police never seem to make those mistakes with rich white folks.

I'm not convinced Cory Maye should be in jail at all, much less on death row awaiting execution by lethal injection. For the record, I remain opposed to capital punishment in all circumstances, whether the defendant is Cory Maye, Stanley Tookie Williams, Charles Manson, Saddam Hussein or Adolph Hitler.

But this case is special. If you were concerned about the case of Stanley Tookie Williams, then you ought to be concerned about the case of Cory Maye. And if you weren't concerned about the death penalty for the founder of the Crips gang, then you ought to be concerned about killing a man who simply sought to defend himself in his own home.

Cory Maye should not be killed. No civilized society would execute a man for using reasonable force to protect his home and his family from intrusion. But then, is our society really all that civilized in the first place?

Warrant on Maye's residence (PDF)
http://www.theagitator.com/maye.warrant.pdf

Affidavit on Maye's residence (PDF)
http://www.theagitator.com/maye.affidavit.pdf

Facts on Maye's residence (PDF)
http://www.theagitator.com/maye.underlying.pdf

Post-raid evidence sheet on Maye's residence (PDF)
http://www.theagitator.com/maye.evidence.pdf

Warrant on Smith's residence (PDF)

http://www.theagitator.com/smith.warrant.pdf

Affidavit on Smith residence (PDF)
http://www.theagitator.com/smith.affidavit.pdf


Underlying facts on Smith residence
http://www.theagitator.com/smith.underlying.pdf

Post-raid evidence sheet on Smith residence
http://www.theagitator.com/smith.evidence.pdf


______________

*Thank you, Keith Boykin for bringing this to so many people's attention.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This judicial system hasn't changed the least bit since the days of Assata and Huey... not one bit.

[Im The Truth]

Since then maaaaaannn.... since we were got here.

This judicial system hasn't changed the least bit since the days of Assata and Huey... not one bit.

[BlackQueen]

The judicial system will never change. The whites believe that true justice is bashing in our heads and shooting us on sight.

[Pragmatic]

Friday, 26 November 2010 02:07


Haley Barbour is a Coward

Your input is considered valuable and important, so please contact us by phone at 1-877-405-0733 or 601-359-3150, or by mail at: P.O. Box 139, Jackson, Mississippi 39205. Or write the office at governor@governor.state.ms.us.

P.O. Box 139 | Jackson, MS 39205 | Phone: 601.359.3150 | Fax: 601.359.3741

http://www.governorbarbour.com/contact/


By Jeff Knox

Haley Barbour is an astute politician with aspirations beyond the Governor’s Mansion in Mississippi. He has been very active in the internal workings of the Republican Party for decades and is often named as a possible presidential candidate in 2012. As a career politician, Barbour is careful to avoid anything which might damage his political future. You will not find his name on the membership roles of “extremist” or “radical” organizations. You will not catch him golfing at any all-white country clubs. And you will not find bribe money in his kitchen freezer. Neither will you find any criminals, released from prison by Governor Barbour, out terrorizing the countryside.

Embarrassing criminal recidivism will never haunt Governor Barbour’s political career because Governor Barbour has a firm policy of refusing to “interfere” with the justice system.

Barbour’s non-interference policy is probably politically smart. After all, few voters have much concern for kindness to convicted criminals and criminals have a way of falling back on old habits and embarrassing their political benefactors. The presidential aspirations of Governor Michael Dukakis were seriously compromised by revelations that he had supported a furlough program which allowed a convicted murderer named Willie Horton out of prison long enough to commit armed robbery, assault, and rape. Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas and contender for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, might have had his future presidential aspirations cut off at the knees by a man whose life sentence he commuted. The man had been sentenced to life in prison as a juvenile and Huckabee felt he deserved a second chance, but several years later the guy proved to be a demented cop hater. He gunned down 4 Seattle-area police officers while they sat in a coffee shop.

Politically savvy or not, Barbour’s policy is cowardly and a dereliction of his duties as Governor.

The criminal justice system in the United States is one of the best and most fair in the world, but it is far from perfect and one of the safety valves in the system is the power of governors and the President to intervene when the system fails. There are countless stories of persons wrongfully convicted, but remaining in prison for years – or decades – because the system offers no avenue for them to get the new evidence, which clearly exonerates them, in front of a judge. Certainly there are many thousands more cases where guilty criminals are grasping at straws in hopes of getting out of jail and governors and the President must exercise their powers judiciously and sparingly, but to completely abdicate this responsibility is simply unconscionable. To indifferently allow a person wrongfully convicted of a crime to languish in prison based on a politically motivated policy should reflect every bit as poorly on a politician as releasing an offender who subsequently offends again.

Several years ago I reported on the story of a young man in Mississippi named Cory Maye who, on the night after Christmas, 2001, blindly fired at intruders as they kicked down the door to his sleeping child’s bedroom. A moment after Maye fired the shots, police officers at the door, who had not previously announced themselves, identified themselves and Maye immediately dropped the gun and surrendered. Tragically, the first officer through the door was mortally wounded by one of Maye’s wild shots. The officer killed was the popular, white son of the local Police Chief. Cory Maye was an unemployed, black youth with no criminal record and no money for an attorney. The trial was moved from the rural, poor, predominantly black area where the tragedy occurred to a suburban, affluent, predominantly white venue. Only two blacks served on the jury. Cory Maye was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

Since that conviction Maye has appealed and gotten his sentence changed to life in prison and last year he was finally granted a new trial, but with limitations which are now to be debated in the State Supreme Court. Regardless of the decision of that court there is still much doubt as to whether a young, black man can find justice in the killing of a white police officer in Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi.

The injustice of the Maye case is so clear and obvious it is outrageous that Governor Barbour has refused to intervene. The 18-month old daughter Cory Maye was protecting when he fired those shots is now 10 ½ -years old and all of that time her father has been behind bars. As proof of Barbour’s commitment to his non-interference policy Barbour’s office points to the fact that he refused to overturn the conviction of a man who was unquestionably proven innocent - even after the man was dead. I call that evidence of Governor Barbour’s cowardice and dereliction of duty. The people of Mississippi have entrusted him with the power to right such wrongs and his refusal to do so in a case as blatant as that of Cory Maye is simply shameful.


Permission to reprint or post this article in its entirety is hereby granted provided this credit is included. Text is available at. To receive The Firearms Coalition’s bi-monthly newsletter, The Knox Hard Corps Report, write to PO Box 3313, Manassas, VA 20108.



Peace be upon you

Cory Maye Update

[Wabwabit Amun]

The nature of the Caucasian is wicked and evil, always has and always will be. So many brothers and sisters have been falsely accused and incarcerated behind false charges. It burns my spirit to read another brother fighting for his life for a natural protective response. It is only by the positive forces of nature that he did not die that night. It is a sad reality that rather admit to a mistake, they seek justice for a officer killed in the line of duty.

[Pragmatic]

On December 2, 2010, the Mississippi Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals' decision and granted Maye a new trial on the grounds that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury as Maye had requested on the nature of self-defense and defense of others (i.e., his daughter).

Peace be upon you
Cory Maye - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edwins]

Beloved Ones:

I do not know about ALL but this is making me ill, to see this system PIC_A_Nigga as they said during slavery and now.

The europeans (humans only) are carnivores, loving the BAR-B-Quing of Afrikans, burning and smell of flesh.

What do we do now Beloved Ones?

Here is loving Afrika

Goddess Isis

i wish i knew, my sistah- i wish i knew... we might study the law 'before' we get caught up in bull like this and be somewhat prepared to the extent that we attempt to interrupt the tricks and games that we get caught up in. check out the blog "the law vs. black folk"...