Radley Balko says: "I have a longish piece up at Huffington Post today telling the story behind last week's plea bargain in the Cory Maye case. Maye was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 2004 for killing a police officer during a botched drug raid on his home.
"It's a story I've been reporting on for about five years. After doing time on death row, then in a notoriously violent wing of Parchman Penitentiary, Maye will soon be going home to his family."
Cory Maye, now 30, was convicted in 2004 of shooting and killing Prentiss, Mississippi, police officer Ron Jones, Jr. during a botched drug raid on Maye's home on the day after Christmas in 2001. Maye says he was asleep as the raid began at 12:30 a.m. and had no idea the men breaking into his home were police. The police say they announced themselves. Maye had no prior criminal record, and police found all of a marijuana roach in his apartment, which under other circumstances would garner a $100 fine.
In fact, the man who lived next door to Maye in that bright yellow duplex, Jamie Smith, already had drug charges pending against him and appears to have been the actual target of the police action that night. The police found a significant supply of drugs in Smith's apartment, though Smith has never been tried.
