Can You Shoot a Police Officer in Self Defense

Cory Jermaine Maye (built-in September 9, 1980) is a one-time prisoner in the U.S. state of Mississippi. He was originally convicted of murder in the 2001 death of a Prentiss, Mississippi constabulary officer Ron W. Jones, during a drug raid on the other half of Maye'due south duplex. Maye has said he thought that the intruders were burglars and did not realize they were police. He pleaded non guilty at his trial, citing self-defense force. Nevertheless, Maye was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death. Maye'southward case attracted picayune attention until late 2005, when Reason magazine senior editor and police misconduct researcher Radley Balko brought information technology to light on his blog The Agitator.^[1] Balko's inquiry raised several questions well-nigh Maye's conviction and in item about the reliability of medical examiner Steven Hayne, who performed the autopsy on Jones and testified at the trial. According to Maye's supporters, his conviction also brought up issues such as the correct to self-defense, police conduct in the War on Drugs, racial and social inequities in Mississippi and whether he received competent legal representation.

On September 21, 2006, Maye's expiry sentence was unexpectedly overturned by Gauge Michael Eubanks, who ruled that Maye had received incompetent legal representation during his sentencing stage, and ordered a new sentencing hearing. Maye was sentenced to life in prison. On November 17, 2009, the Mississippi Court of Appeals ruled that Maye'due south ramble right of vicinage was violated when Judge Eubanks refused to return the case to Jefferson Davis Canton, where the alleged crime occurred. The en banc court reversed Maye's conviction and remanded the example for a new trial. The Country of Mississippi appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. On December two, 2010, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued its determination, in which it held that Maye was entitled to a new trial on the ground that the trial court had improperly refused to issue a cocky-defence instruction that would accept highlighted for the jury Maye's right to act in defense of his infant girl, who was nowadays in the home on the night of the police raid that led to the shooting.

On July 1, 2011, Gauge Prentiss Harrell signed a plea understanding in which Maye pleaded guilty to manslaughter; Maye was then sentenced to ten years in prison, time he had already served. Maye was transferred to Rankin Canton, Mississippi for procedural paperwork and out-processing and was released on July 18, 2011.

Biography [edit]

Maye was unemployed at the time of the raid. He and his girlfriend Chanteal had been renting a duplex apartment for less than 2 months and had actually occupied it for only a few weeks at the fourth dimension of the raid. Maye kept their 18-month-old daughter while his girlfriend worked at her regular job.

Maye had no criminal record until he was convicted of killing Jones.

Death of Officeholder Jones [edit]

At 11 p.chiliad. on the night of December 26, 2001, Ron Jones forth with other police officers and an amanuensis employed by the Pearl River Basin Narcotics Chore Strength, a four-county constabulary agency responsible for drug enforcement, went to Maye'southward 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. They found a little more than a gram of marijuana, virtually of it old and ashen—at worst a misdemeanor. Jefferson Davis Canton District Attorney Claiborne "Buddy" McDonald says he does not remember Smith being charged or convicted.

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

Four of the officers who took part in the raid testified they knocked on Maye'southward door and identified themselves as police force enforcement officers. Maye testified he heard neither knocks on his door nor anyone denote 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 quotient pistol that he kept boxed and unloaded on top of a tall headboard. When Jones entered the bedroom, Maye fired three times. Jones was wearing a bulletproof vest, simply 1 bullet hitting merely beneath the belong, and the injury proved fatal.

Jones, the son of Prentiss' and so police chief, was not a regular member of the narcotics chore force, merely a K9 officer for the Prentiss law department. Trial testimony showed that when Jones exited the flat and fell to the ground outside, his pistol was holstered.

Trial [edit]

Maye had no criminal tape, and wasn't the named target of a search warrant. Police initially ended they had institute no drugs in Maye's side of the duplex, but afterwards claimed that i smoked marijuana cigarette was in the apartment along with a plastic purse containing "traces" of the drug.

The trial was held in neighboring Marion County, after Maye'due south lawyer successfully argued for a change of venue. But his lawyer's original request and agreement for the venue change had been to Lamar County, an adjoining county that is 88% white. When she tardily realized her mistake, Maye's trial lawyer tried unsuccessfully to take the trial moved back to Jefferson Davis County. Although the trial judge refused the request to return the trial to Jefferson Davis County, he did again change the venue to Marion County where the trial was afterwards held. Of the 12 jurors subsequently selected, two were African American.

Maye testified that it was night in his apartment when he heard someone breaking into the back door, which was located in the sleeping accommodation. "That's when I fired the shots," Maye said. "Subsequently I fired the shots, I heard them yell 'police! police force!' Once I heard them, I put the weapon down and slid it away. I did non know they were police officers."

The weapon used was stolen approximately one year prior to the shooting. Maye claims it was given to him by a friend. Mississippi law indicates that information technology is justifiable to kill another in an act of reasonable self-defense. It as well provides that the killing of a police officer is not capital murder if the killer had no cognition that the victim was a police force officer.

The prosecution claimed that officers appear at the front door and then at the back door of Maye's residence. He and his lawyer say that they only identified themselves as police force after he had shot Jones. The defence tried to show Maye did not know the persons breaking in were law officers, and that he was acting to protect his baby daughter in the bedroom. In mitigation the defense argued Maye's lack of a criminal record and his immature historic period (21).

The jury took 5 hours to convict Maye on the capital murder charge. The same afternoon, Marion Canton Excursion Court Judge Michael Eubanks sentenced Maye to death by lethal injection.

Incarceration [edit]

Maye entered MDOC on January 26, 2004.^[two] He was incarcerated in the State of Mississippi'southward male person death row in Unit 32,^{[3] [4]} a office of the Mississippi Land Penitentiary in Sunflower County,^[5] and later on in the Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood, Mississippi.^[2]

Controversy [edit]

While researching related material, columnist and blogger Radley Balko ran across Maye'due south case and blogged his initial findings. Other bloggers across the political spectrum picked them up. Balko wrote extensively on the Maye case, posting updates regarding Maye's courtroom dates, findings, decisions, et al., and illustrating what he felt were the many inadequacies and errors with both the initial search of Maye'due south dwelling house, his legal representation, and the unfit nature of the jurors, among other complaints. Balko's attention to and prolific reporting on the case are widely credited with Maye's eventual release.

Counsel [edit]

Maye's original attorney, Rhonda Cooper, had never tried a capital murder case before she represented Maye. Maye'south family fired Cooper after Maye's confidence.

Maye is currently represented by Bob Evans, the original public defender in the example. Evans is the public defender for Jefferson Davis County, and was concurrently the public defender for the boondocks of Prentiss, seat of Jefferson Davis Canton, until January 10, 2006, when he was fired past the Prentiss Board of Aldermen. Co-ordinate to the mayor of Prentiss, Charles Dumas, Evans' dismissal was directly related to his representation of Maye.

The Washington, D.C., law firms of Covington & Burling, Pafford Lawrence & Ross, and the Vernia Law Firm, as well as professor Orin Kerr of The George Washington Academy Law Schoolhouse stand for Maye pro bono publico.

Terry R. Cox, Certified Legal Investigator (CLI) of The Lonewolf Group Legal Investigation & Consulting of Booneville, Mississippi, was engaged by Maye'due south counsel to help in the mail conviction investigation of the case. Cox was instrumental in tracking down the "unknown confidential informant" who acknowledged his involvement and afterwards testified at a hearing in the thing which proved instrumental in the court setting aside the death penalty.

Discrepancies in police and courtroom records [edit]

Since Jones died, information technology is incommunicable 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 (of import since Maye had only moved into the apartment a few weeks earlier the raid). The brownie of the informant is not known beyond Jones' statement that information he had previously provided had led to a single arrest. Information technology also appears that Jones and a colleague did not verify the tip, which is typically washed by making a controlled drug buy.

Jones' affidavit for the warrants names Smith just not Maye, referring only to "person or persons unknown" in the other apartment. Both apartments are described using the same linguistic communication.

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. Still, several changes made to the documents for Maye put the time of that bear witness collection at 5:twenty a.yard., several hours after the raid.

Maye'due south family and his attorney also accused officers of beating him while he was in custody after his arrest. His mug shot, taken the twenty-four hours of the shooting, shows Maye with a prominent swollen and discolored right centre. Officers and prosecutors denied that whatsoever beating occurred.

Entreatment [edit]

Maye'south appeal was argued^[6] before the Mississippi Court of Appeals on June 4, 2009; on November 17, 2009, the court ready aside his conviction and ordered a new trial on the grounds that he was denied his right to have the trial conducted in the county of the alleged crime.

On June 24, 2010, the Mississippi Supreme Court granted petitions for writ of certiorari filed past both the State of Mississippi (arguing that the Court of Appeals' decision to grant Maye a new trial was erroneous) and Maye (arguing that the Courtroom of Appeals erred in not vacating his confidence entirely and dismissing the charges for bereft testify, and advancing culling grounds for a new trial).

On December 2, 2010, the Mississippi Supreme Court vacated the Courtroom of Appeals' determination and granted Maye a new trial on the grounds that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury equally Maye had requested on the nature of cocky-defence force and defence force of others (i.due east., his daughter).

Plea Agreement [edit]

On the morning of July 1, 2011, Maye was offered and accepted a plea understanding. Judge Prentiss Harrell of the 15th Circuit Court of Mississippi signed the understanding nether which Maye pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for a ten-year sentence, which was decreed to be time served. Maye was then transferred to Rankin County, Mississippi for procedural paperwork and out-processing,^{[seven] [viii]} and was released on July 18, 2011.^[nine]

Media coverage [edit]

• Convicted Murderer Sentenced to Death
• Railroaded Onto Death Row?
• Radley Balko Interviewed About Cory Maye On Charles Goyette Bear witness - Air America Radio Phoenix, Arizona (Dec 16, 2005)

Internet coverage [edit]

• Radley Balko's blog entries
• Weblog entry by William Norman Grigg
• Waiting for Death in Mississippi at TalkLeft.com (a weblog), 9 December 2005
• Maybe, or maybe not by Paul Jacob, Townhall.com, thirty April 2006
• The Drew Carey Project: Mississippi Drug War Blues: The Case of Cory Maye
• Mississippi Appellate Court Video Archive

Legal documents [edit]

• Search warrant for Maye residence
• Affirmation for Maye search
• Underlying bear witness for Maye affidavit
• Evidence report from the Maye search
• Search warrant for the Smith residence
• Affirmation for the Smith search
• Underlying testify for the Smith affidavit
• Evidence report from the Smith search

Encounter as well [edit]

• Steven Hayne
• Ryan Frederick

References [edit]

1. ^ Balko, Radley (October 2006). Reason https://reason.com/2006/ten/01/the-instance-of-cory-maye-2/. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Corey Maye". Mississippi Department of Corrections. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
3. ^ "Convicted Cop-Killer Wants New Trial". WLBT. Feb nine, 2004. Archived from the original on March six, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
4. ^ "Mississippi Drug War Blues: The Case of Cory Maye". Reason . Retrieved Baronial 12, 2010. Cory Maye is currently housed in Unit 32, the loftier-security wing at Mississippi's Parchman Penitentiary.
5. ^ Kalahar, Jon (October eight, 2007). "'Wall Street Journal' Questions Hayne's Ideals". Archived from the original on March half-dozen, 2012.
6. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 25, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2009. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy every bit title (link)
7. ^ "Man in one case sentenced to die in Miss. police expiry pleads guilty to manslaughter, could exist freed". The Washington Post. Associated Press. July i, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2011. ^{[ dead link ]}
8. ^ Balko, Radley (July i, 2011). "Cory Maye To Be Released From Prison". The Huffington Post . Retrieved July ane, 2011.
9. ^ Balko, Radley (July 19, 2011). "Cory Maye Is Free". TheAgitator.com. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved June xviii, 2020.

External links [edit]

• Maye's records at Mississippi's corrections department
• Article in defence of Maye
• BattlePanda blog lists many websites that take talked about the example
• PoliceCrimes.com
• Ron Jones'southward Officer Down Memorial Page.
• A page on Cory Maye'due south case on the website of The Vernia Law Business firm, which represents Maye pro bono publico

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Maye

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