Blogging Cory Maye...con't

The Agitator is continuing to do stellar work on the Cory Maye case. Here's a clip of his email exchange with the persecutor Buddy McDonald:

Maye's testimony is that the narcotics task force yelled "police" only after forcing the door open, and he'd already shot Jones. At that point, he dropped his gun and raised his hands.

As to why no drugs were found in Maye's apartment, and why a man with no criminal record would engage in a shootout with police instead of simply letting them in, McDonald answers:

Time elapsed from the time they announced at the front door and the time they gained entry in the back. Things get flushed some times. We do not know what else he might have to hide, (what he might have done he knew of and the police did not know of]) he may have thought they were there on to something else concerning him. Just to be frank some times people do irrational things.

Well, that last sentence is certainly true, though probably not in the way McDonald intended. What's troubling here is the level of suspicion McDonald thrusts onto Maye, despite the fact that, at risk of repeating myself, (a) Maye had no crminal record, (b) no drugs were found in Maye's apartment, (c) there's every reason to believe that Maye wasn't even the original target of the warrant.

Bastard! "...some times people do irrational things." That's the motive they used to charge Maye with first-degree murder? That and "we do not know what else he might have to hide" (that you obviously did not find in the course of your investigation of Maye, Mr. Persecutor). Ugh! I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if Maye was white, the persecutor would not be coming up with this kind of retarded presumption of criminal intent despite of all available evidence.

I am listening to NPR right now where they are having something of a mini Tookie-thon. I mean, I'm glad Tookie reformed and all, and it's true I'm against the death penalty in general. But we should not be doing all this handwringing over Tookie when a completely and obviously innocent man like Cory Maye is rotting on death row.

The response to my blog challenge has been wonderful. The "blue" blogisphere have been waking up to the story. So much for the theory that we won't cover the Cory Maye case because we're so anti-gun or whatever.

People have not been pleased about the way I assigned libertarians to the red side as a default, so I have been more careful about this now. I look at the blogroll to get a sense of whether someone seems more red or blue and assign accordingly. And if I can't tell, you go onto the "Red or Blue?" pile until you email me or leave a note in the comments. Another commenter noted that if I took the libertarians, left leaning and right leaning, and gave them their own catagory, they would probably win! Point taken. I'm not going to change things around now, but just so it's clear, I would like to say that this whole story is indeed a coup for the libertarian blogosphere -- Radley broke it, and they've done a great job covering it ever since.

One more thing...it's time to start thinking about porting this story off this blogisphere and into the real world. A Technorati search for Cory Maye brings up all the right stories. A Google search does not. This is the top result:

Officer RON JONES (29) - killed in the line of duty
Cory Maye (21) - charged with capital murder
PRENTISS, Mississippi
Police chief's son killed; Officer shot during drug raid; suspect jailed --(AP)-- A Monticello man is facing capital murder charges after a shootout that erupted during a drug raid left Prentiss police officer Ron Jones dead. Cory Maye, 21, had an initial hearing Thursday in Jefferson Davis County Justice Court. Maye was ordered held without bond.
Young officer shot dead on drug raid called hero--(Clarion-Ledger)--Police Officer Ron Jones devoted himself to stopping the flow of drugs in this city of about 1,500 people where his father is police chief, the city's mayor said Thursday. That devotion led to his shooting death about midnight Wednesday while attempting to serve a warrant.

This does not tell the story that needs to be told. I know a lot of bloggers, including some readers to this blog, are/have contacts in the journalism community. That's the next logical step. There is also some talk on the Talkleft comment thread over starting a legal defense fund. Is anything going to come of it?

UPDATE: Gene had a great idea for getting the word out -- call your local talk radio station. He is going to get to work on Air America. Call one, call all.

UPDATE 2: Hugh Hewitt linked to my post. The Cory Maye case is so messed up that it has caused Huge Hewitt and I to find common ground!. The man need to go free.