Reason Magazine
- reason.com
- reason.tv
- reason.org
- Donate
- Site Search:
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsadvertisements
Cory Maye No Longer on Death Row!
And it's a grand--though not final by any means--victory for Reason contributor Radley Balko, who wrote for us an amazing and infuriating feature story about Cory Maye's unjust sentencing for shooting a police officer who burst into his home in the dead of night unannounced.
See Radley's blog on what happened at Maye's hearing this week. (Upshot: he will at least get a new sentencing trial.)
See Jim Henley explain, in ways Radley did not, why Radley deserves the credit.
And see Radley's detailed Reason feature from our October issue here.
This is truly fabulous news.
|9.23.06 @ 10:46PM|#
Congrats to Maye. Let's hope some sane law enforcement policy will be the result of this whole debacle.
|9.23.06 @ 11:10PM|#
He needs to get more than just a new sentencing trial, starting
with a review of the entire case.
And America needs to reexamine this entire process of government
sanctioned home invasion, starting where the dog gets shot all the
way up to the point that the "suspect" is either shot or charged
with shooting a law enforcement officer.
There is no way anyone can justify this level of force, for what
basically usually amount to misdemeanor possession charges.
Another sign that the media, sans Balko, is in autopilot
stenographer mode.
James Anderson Merritt|9.23.06 @ 11:55PM|#
How to make the transition from impotent rage to potent rage?
aspendougy|9.24.06 @ 12:06AM|#
Apart from the comments already made, he deserves a new trial, insane policy, etc., I wonder if the police do their homework. Did they know that he was alone with his 14 month old daughter, and that he was bound to be protective of her? It's still wrong to enter his home like that on principle, but it is doubly criminal when there is a very small baby involved. The police officer could just have easily shot the child.
Jim Anderson|9.24.06 @ 1:50AM|#
To paraphrase good Dr. King, Radley Balko anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere.
|9.24.06 @ 10:52AM|#
"Did they know that he was alone with his 14 month old daughter,
and that he was bound to be protective of her?"
Obviously they did not know these things. They did not even know
Maye's name; it was not on the warrant. He and his girl friend were
listed as "unknown occupants", and there was no mention at all of
the child.
The drug war is insane. It has destroyed a lot of what was good
about America. A poster here on H&R (Tarran, I think was his
name) wrote an absolutely eloquent opinion about the WOD. If I can
find it (I copied it) I will repost.
Jennifer|9.24.06 @ 11:18AM|#
I hope this is a true turning point in the WOD, not a one-shot deal. Too early to tell. Either way, Radley Balko is a shining example of exactly what the media is supposed to be--not cheerleaders for the government, but muckrakers uncovering the nasty evil secrets government doesn't want you to know about.
Thomas Paine's Goiter|9.24.06 @ 11:20AM|#
Dammit.
Radley Balko for TIME man of the year. I'm neither kidding nor
hyperbolizing.
Robert|9.24.06 @ 11:27AM|#
"America needs to reexamine this entire process of government
sanctioned home invasion, starting where the dog gets shot all the
way up to the point that the `suspect' is either shot or charged
with shooting a law enforcement officer.
"There is no way anyone can justify this level of force,"
And I still haven't gotten an explanation for why they do it.
Warren|9.24.06 @ 11:37AM|#
Great News!
Cudos to Radley! Well done sir.
And attaboys to all the bloggers who picked up the ball and ran
with it.
|9.24.06 @ 11:58AM|#
Wonderful news - after watching the Senate cave in to Bush and
Co.'s bizarre taste for legalized torture, it helped make the
weekend a little bit brighter. Great work by Radley!
Loved the title of Henley's blog piece, too. :)
|9.24.06 @ 1:01PM|#
Ticketyboo, Radley!
Keep up the good work and someday we can end the violence and waste
of lives created by the WOD.
|9.24.06 @ 2:24PM|#
Although it wouldn't help renters, home owners should look into
steel core doors with steel frames. The locks should be at least
three point. This would slow down ram entries if not completely
defeat them.
I've looked into prices and they're competitve with mid-range sold
wood doors.
For windows and sliding glass doors there are films that can turn
glass into a type of safety glass similar to a car's windshield-
very difficult to get through even with an axe.
I'm always struck by raids on dealers homes where the doors can be
kicked in. It seems like hardening the entryways would be a
no-brainer.
|9.24.06 @ 2:57PM|#
And I still haven't gotten an explanation for why they do
it.
There seem to be two reasons.
One is that they really believe in it. If you really, really
believe that these drug dealers are that dangerous then any risk is
worthwhile.
The other is that drug squads pay a lot of overtime and other
perks. A lot of guys choose the duty for that.
Put the two together and you get this kind of shit.
Mona|9.24.06 @ 3:45PM|#
It is an over-used cliche, but reading Balko's article I truly thought my head was going to explode. And keep in mind, when Balko wrote that piece for the October issue of Reason, he had not yet determined the identity, nature and views of the "informant" who provided the info for the Maye drug raid warrant. As Balko has since shown, the guy is a racist cretin whose favorite word would appear to be "nigger."
|9.24.06 @ 5:35PM|#
At last a blogger with a goal of fairness gets something done
that nobody else would touch. Now how about a change of venue out
of the state.
Mississippi must be "something else". The Mayor if Jackson,
(mentioned above), is up on 8 charges, with possibly more in the
works. Read about it at:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060916/NEWS/609160368/1002
But thank goodness things have cooled down from 1914, when the
Colorado militia turned a machine gun loose on women and children
in a striking miner's camp on private property leased to the
miners.
On the morning of April 20th 1914, Colorado Militia, (National
Guard), troops fired into the camp, anyone who was seen moving in
the camp was targeted
>>>>>The battle lasted 14 hours and included a . .
[militia] . . machine gun and 200 armed militia; the tent city was
destroyed. Of the 25 people killed, three were militia men, twelve
were children, and one was an uninvolved passerby. The strikers
were mostly Greek, Italian, Slav, and Mexican workers; the militia
were sent by the Governor of Colorado and ultimately by, , , (get
this), , , John D. Rockefeller, , , , owner of the Colorado Fuel
and Iron Company.>>>>>
Read the rest of it here:
http://archaeology.about.com/cs/military/bb/ludlow.htm
PS: Kinky, you and Hamp Gandy would make a pair. When he ran for
sheriff of Escambia County Florida they finally busted him for
those 17 outstanding traffic warrants.
|9.24.06 @ 5:52PM|#
"As Balko has since shown, the guy is a racist cretin whose
favorite word would appear to be "nigger.""
With the exception of that term, when listening to the recording of
the phone message I couldn't understand a gorram thing that
degenerate hick was saying. It's nice to know that someone is
fluent in Southern-White-Trash-ese and could provide a
translation.
Personally, I'm still waiting for one of the right-wing squawk show
hosts (e.g. Hannity, Limbaugh, Savage, etc.) to scream bloody
murder about how a "liberal activist judge" might get a "cop
killer" off death row.
I wouldn't put it past the fuckers.
Warren|9.24.06 @ 6:07PM|#
From TheAgitator:
Cory's life is far from saved. Thursday's ruling was certainly
a victory, but we're still a long way from real justice in this
case. There's still the possibility he could be again get death at
the new sentencing trial. I think odds are against that happening,
for reasons I'll get into later, but it's still a very real
possibility.
I'm also a little concerned that should Cory's sentence be reduced
to the death penalty to life in prison, his cause will lose some
momentum. Life without parole doesn't carry nearly the same sex
appeal as a looming date with the death chamber. I hope that
doesn't happen -- I hope the people who've done great work
promoting this will case continue to write about it and call
attention to it. An innocent life spent in prison isn't a life
saved. Cory's two kids will still grow up without a dad. And a good
guy will still wrongly waste away his life in a jail cell.
Thursday brought wonderful news. But there's still a long, long way
to go.
Amen to that. Let's keep this one on the front burner.
|9.24.06 @ 6:12PM|#
I don't know about the other two guys, but I'd expect Rush, who
could have easily been the subject of a no-knock raid, himself, to
steer clear of the whole issue. While he did the country a signal
service by aggressively contesting local prosecutors' attempts to
gut medical privacy laws in the name of the WoSD, he seems to have
a sketchy grasp on the importance of the 4th Amendment, not to
mention the 5th and the 9th.
I had a microscopic hope that his experiences would have changed
his mind about the Drug War, but he has stuck to the prohibitionist
parties' line.
Kevin
|9.24.06 @ 6:33PM|#
I don't know about the other two guys, but I'd expect Rush, who
could have easily been the subject of a no-knock raid, himself, to
steer clear of the whole issue. While he did the country a signal
service by aggressively contesting local prosecutors' attempts to
gut medical privacy laws in the name of the WoSD, he seems to have
a sketchy grasp on the importance of the 4th Amendment, not to
mention the 5th and the 9th.
I had a microscopic hope that his experiences would have changed
his mind about the Drug War, but he has stuck to the prohibitionist
parties' line.
Kevin
dhex|9.24.06 @ 7:15PM|#
"but I'd expect Rush, who could have easily been the subject of
a no-knock raid, himself"
sorry, but uh, no fucking way in hell. really. let's not be naive
here.
and big fucking ups to mr. balko.
Robert|9.25.06 @ 12:56AM|#
"There seem to be two reasons.
"One is that they really believe in it. If you really, really
believe that these drug dealers are that dangerous then any risk is
worthwhile.
"The other is that drug squads pay a lot of overtime and other
perks. A lot of guys choose the duty for that."
No, I was asking why they use those methods.
|9.25.06 @ 2:04PM|#
No, I was asking why they use those methods.
Less than serious, but surprisingly accurate answer:
Because they've been watching too much television.
Britney|9.25.06 @ 5:29PM|#
Great site, look this:
leather
bracelets
peridot
bracelet
[URL="http://sendinok.info/magnetic-bead-bracelet.html"]magnetic
bead bracelet[/URL]
http://sendinok.info/italian-charm-bracelet.html
[URL="http://sendinok.info/disney-charm-bracelet.html"]disney charm
bracelet[/URL]
http://sendinok.info/jade-bangle-bracelet.html
[URL="http://sendinok.info/copper-bracelet.html"]copper
bracelet[/URL]
[URL="http://sendinok.info/debossed-silicone-bracelets.html"]debossed
silicone bracelets[/URL]
http://sendinok.info/ovarian-cancer-bracelet.html
http://sendinok.info/gold-charms-for-bracelets.html
Robert|9.25.06 @ 11:53PM|#
I've heard that one too, and I think that here once I even posted about a remark I'd heard some years back that police began to routinely handcuff arrestees because they saw it on TV.
|9.26.06 @ 10:18AM|#
Robert
I knew that someone else shared my (non-scientific) opinion on
this.
As near as I can tell, things that seem to have originated on
TV:
1. SWAT teams. Before that awful 1975 show local police departments
realied on minimal firepower to get their jobs done. In the absence
of serious civil unrest (in which case the National Guard is
deployed) heavy arms and military tactics are seldom needed in a
local law enforcement environment.
2. Handcuffing all arrestees, in cluding non-violent ones. At one
time restraint was considered necessary only for perpetrators of
violent crimes.
3. Using the term civilians to refer to people who are not
police officers. Before the 1980s cops knew that they were
civilians too. Now they may have used "civilian" as a slang term
for those outside the brotherhood but then so do a lot of other
occupations. Now the term is in general use so that we have
"Civilian Review Boards" being set up in communities across the
country by people who should know better.
I do not know if military style no-knock raids originated on TV but
I do believe that TV has shown police acting in a far more military
manner. This behavior seems to be becoming more and more common in
police departments.
We have come along way from Peel's principles, that is, if we ever
actually practised them.
Hillary|9.26.06 @ 3:13PM|#
Great site, look this:
[URL="http://sendinok.info/chanel/chanel-brown-fur-boots.html"]chanel
brown fur boots[/URL]
http://sendinok.info/chanel/chanel-tote-bags.html
chanel
brown fur boots
http://sendinok.info/chanel/chanel-cambon.html
[URL="http://sendinok.info/chanel/travel-chanel.html"]travel
chanel[/URL]
[URL="http://sendinok.info/chanel/coco-chanel-biography.html"]coco
chanel biography[/URL]
[URL="http://sendinok.info/chanel/chanel-handbag-latest.html"]chanel
handbag latest[/URL]
http://sendinok.info/chanel/chanel-thigh-high-boots.html
chanel
aviator sun glasses
chanel
sungles at discount
Site comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245