>The Cory Maye case is just about the ugliest nexus of race, civil
rights violations, southern juries and our criminal justice system
that I can think of.
>>Let's summarize: Cops mistakenly break down the door of a sleeping
man, late at night, as part of drug raid. Turns out, the man wasn't
named in the warrant, and wasn't a suspect. The man, frigthened for
himself and his 18-month old daughter, fires at an intruder who jumps
into his bedroom after the door's been kicked in. Turns out that the
man, who is black, has killed the white son of the town's police
chief. He's later convicted and sentenced to death by a white jury.
The man has no criminal record, and police rather tellingly changed
their story about drugs (rather, traces of drugs) in his possession at
the time of the raid.
>Cory Maye is now on death row in Mississippi.