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Cory Maye

Cory Maye, sometimes spelt Corey Maye (born September 9, 1980), is a prisoner in the U.S. state of Mississippi. He was convicted of murder in the 2001 death of Prentiss, Mississippi police officer Ron W. Jones during a drug raid on the other half of Maye's duplex. Maye has said he thought that the intruders were burglars and did not realize they were police. He pleaded not guilty at his trial, citing self-defense. Nevertheless, Maye was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death. On September 21, 2006, the death sentence was overturned by Judge Michael Eubanks, and Maye was sentenced to life in prison.

His case attracted little attention until late 2005, when Reason magazine senior editor and police misconduct researcher Radley Balko brought it to light on his blog "The Agitator." Maye's supporters say his conviction and sentence raise issues about the right to self-defense, police conduct in the War on Drugs, and racial and social inequities in Mississippi. They have also raised questions about whether he has received competent legal representation.

Death of Officer Jones

At 11 p.m. on the night of December 26, 2001, Ron Jones along with other police officers and an agent employed by the Pearl River Basin Narcotics Task Force, a four-county police agency responsible for drug enforcement, went to Maye's duplex for the purpose of drug interdiction. Jones, though not a member of the Task Force, had received a confidential tip that large quantities of marijuana were being stored and sold in the apartment of Jamie Smith, who lived in the other half of the duplex. The officers obtained search warrants for both apartments. Whether the warrants legally allowed for a no-knock entry is still not clear.

Smith was arrested without incident. Although some illicit drugs were found in his home, Maye's former attorney, Rhonda Cooper, says Smith was never charged with drug possession or distribution. Jefferson Davis County District Attorney Claiborne "Buddy" McDonald says he doesn't remember Smith being charged or convicted.

There is disagreement about what happened next. The officers then either served the warrant on Maye's half of the duplex (later, prosecutors would say both were served simultaneously) or entered what they thought was another door to Smith's in search of more contraband.

Four of the officers who took part in the raid testified they knocked on Maye's door and identified themselves as law enforcement officers. Maye testified he heard neither knocks on his door nor anyone announce themselves. Maye testified he was asleep on a chair in the living room when he heard a crash, prompting him to run to his daughter's bedroom and ready a .380-caliber pistol that he kept boxed and unclipped on top of a tall headboard. When Jones burst into the bedroom, Maye fired three times. Jones was wearing a bulletproof vest, but one bullet hit just below the vest, and the injury proved fatal.

Jones, the son of Prentiss' then police chief, was not a regular member of the narcotics task force, but a K9 officer for the Prentiss police department. Trial testimony indicated that when Jones exited the apartment and fell to the ground outside, his pistol was holstered.

Controversy

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.

Counsel

Maye's original attorney, Rhonda Cooper, had never tried a capital murder case before she represented Maye. Since Jefferson Davis County has a majority of African-Americans (67%) who might have made more sympathetic jurors, while Lamar County is 88% white and Marion County is 68% white, it may have been a mistake having the trial moved. Maye's family fired Cooper after his conviction. Maye has filed a motion for a new trial, which is not yet fully briefed.

Maye is now represented by Bob Evans, the original public defender in the case. Evans is the public defender for Jefferson Davis County, and was concurrently the public defender for the town of Prentiss, seat of Jefferson Davis County, until January 10, 2006 when he was fired by the Prentiss Board of Aldermen. According to the mayor of Prentiss, Charles Dumas, Evans' dismissal was directly related to his representation of Maye.

The Washington, D.C., law firm of Covington & Burling and Professor Orin Kerr of The George Washington University Law School also represent Maye on a pro bono basis.

Discrepancies in police and court records

Since Jones died, it is impossible to know how thoroughly he investigated the tip he received before passing it along. He claimed he had observed unusually heavy traffic at the residence, but left no written record of when he made those observations (important since Maye had only moved into the apartment a few weeks before the raid). The credibility of the informant is not known beyond Jones's statement that information he had previously provided had led to a single arrest. It also appears that he and a colleague did not verify the tip (typically done by making a controlled drug buy).

His affidavit for the warrants names Smith but not Maye, referring only to "person or persons unknown" in the other apartment. Both apartments are described using the same language.

Times have been changed on official records of when evidence was collected from both apartments. Characteristically for what was initially a major drug arrest, Smith's apartment was swept immediately afterwards. However, several changes made to the documents for Maye's put the time of that evidence collection at 5:20 a.m., several hours after the raid.

Maye's family and his attorney also accused officers of beating him while he was in custody after his arrest. His mug shot, taken the day of the shooting, shows Maye with a prominent swollen and discolored right eye. Officers and prosecutors denied that any beating occurred.