New Trial Ordered in Cory Maye Case

In a case that’s a perfect storm of so many things wrong with the criminal justice system -- militaristic police raids, unreliable confidential informants, ill-equipped defenders and the failed war on drugs -- a young Mississippi man has been granted a new trial.

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled last week that Cory Maye, currently serving life in prison for the shooting death of a small town cop, will get another chance at justice, a ruling celebrated by Maye, his family and countless others who have been made aware of this case over the past several years through mounting media coverage.

On the night of December 21, 2001, Maye fell asleep on the couch of his Prentiss, Mississippi, duplex, his 18-month-old daughter, Tacorriana, asleep in the back bedroom. Startled awake by what sounded like someone forcing entry into the front door, Cory rushed to the bedroom where his daughter was sleeping to grab his pistol. He then crouched on the floor, scared and ready for anything, unsure of what was happening.

When a figure burst through the back door, Cory shot three times into the dark -- before hearing someone announce he had just shot a cop. Maye slid his weapon away from him and lay out across the floor, surrendering. "I’m sorry. I didn’t know," he allegedly said.

Since that day, Maye’s life and the lives of so many others have never been the same. Officer Ron Jones died that night. A “good” cop, respected by the people of Prentiss, by people on both sides of the racial divide, Jones himself became a victim of the drug war he was fighting. And the divide that made Prentiss “a white island in a black county” may have been part of the reason Maye was bruised, seemingly beaten, for days after his arrest. It may have also had something to do with the police basing the raid off the word of a confidential informant who, as it turned out, was a raving racist and seriously mistaken in his belief that Maye had drugs in the house.

Maye was initially sentenced to die for the shooting death of Officer Jones. That sentence would be overturned and he would be sentenced to life in prison in 2006. Now, Maye has a chance at a new trial -- and a chance to assert his right to defend his home, his life and the life of his daughter on that night nearly nine years ago.

The warrant that night was signed off on by a sleepy judge who admitted to not asking Officer Jones for more details on the planned raid, executed by a mish-mash of various officers, reportedly none of whom were trained in such narcotics raids. Both the duplex Maye shared with his girlfriend and the neighboring unit were on the warrant, though the paperwork didn’t name Maye or his girlfriend. It did, however, name the man in the other unit, a man with a criminal background who was at the time facing drug charges. Cory Maye had no criminal record.

Maye's attorney argues that he had no knowledge that the intruders that night were police -- at least not until it was too late. Why else would Maye shoot? After all, all that was found in the duplex was a “roach” in the ashtray, not the massive amounts of drugs the warrant stated might be found. Why else would Maye slide his gun across the floor and surrender so easy if, in fact, he intended to shoot police? Maye believed he was acting within his rights that night. That’s why he ran to the back room to grab his gun and protect his daughter.

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled last week for a new trial based on the fact that the trial judge should have allowed the jury to hear evidence that Maye was acting in “defense of others," namely his daughter. The Court of Appeals previously granted a new trial, but for different reasons, ruling that Maye should have been given the chance to move his trial back to Jefferson Davis County after his attorney mistakenly filed for a change of venue to an even less desirable location from the point of view of the defendant.

Just a few days before that fateful night in 2001, Maye had gone to his mother’s home in Monticello. He was tired of living at the duplex, tired of all the noise and comings-and-goings next door. He wanted to move back home, away from Prentiss altogether. On December 23, his girlfriend talked him into returning to the duplex, on the guarantee they would consider moving after the New Year. While it’s been nearly a decade since they had that conversation, perhaps justice will see him come home one day after all.

Photo Credit: Mississippi Dept. of Corrections