Claiborne “Buddy” McDonald writes:

I saw your posting on the Maye case. I was the prosecutor in the case and while it is still pending for appeal purposes and I can not discuss much about it. I will say that there are some issues in the case which are important to your concerns. There were 2 separate search warrants issued for 2 separate apartments in a wood frame duplex which were located side by side one of which was the apartment Maye was in. The warrant was not for the wrong apartment. The warrants were issued by a lawyer/city judge not a lay judge. The warrants were served at the same time by two teams. The testimony was that there were several announcements that they were the police and that they had a search warrant. The occupants in the apartment next to Maye’s allowed entry after announcement and there was no resistance. Maye did not. Porch lights were on in the front of Maye’s apartment and the uniformed officers and marked cars visible in the front yard and on the porch. The officers announced at the front door and then at the back door. The officer who killed was at the front door initially and then went around the back to the back door before entry was made. The defendant Maye testified and the jury did not believe him. You really need to get a copy of the transcript to get an understanding of the entire case. You can get it from Cecilia Fillingame the court reporter in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. If the officer had not had a valid warrant and right to be there the trial judge would not have allowed the case to go forward.

I am a supporter of the right to defend one’s home and while that was his defense, neither the grand jury nor trial jury composed of African Americans and whites believed it. Our area is pro gun rights and pro defense of home and if there had been a serious question as to the announcement or May’s knowledge that it was the police I doubt there would have been an indictment or conviction and certainly not a death verdict. They all voted to find him guilty and all voted to impose the death penalty. The case was not tried in the county of the killing but venue was changed to another county. From the State and the jury’s point of view it was not a no knock or no announce case. I can really say no more than this now but the transcript will give you the full story.

Buddy McDonald

I’ll put in a request for the trial transcript on Monday. I also replied to McDonald, and asked him to send me a copy of the warrant to search Maye’s home.

In the meantime, I have two questions:

1) If there were two separate search warrants issued on the two residences on the same day, why did the Jefferson Davis County clerk only find one warrant in Maye’s file when I called?

Here’s how the process went on Thursday: I called and asked asked circuit court clerk Jerri Landry if I could get a copy of the search warrant in Maye’s file. She said it would take her a while to find it, and asked me to call her back in an hour. When I called back, she said she had the warrant. I asked her to check it for Maye’s name. Maye’s name was nowhere to be found. Now, I suppose it’s possible that the warrant with Maye’s name and address is filed away somewhere else. But that doesn’t make much sense. Why would the warrant for Jamie Smith (the other resident of the duplex) be in Cory Maye’s file, but not the warrant for Cory Maye?

2) Even if there had been a separate warrant for Maye, that doesn’t mean Maye wasn’t justified in defending himself. He’s only guilty of capital murder if he killed Jones knowing that Jones is a cop. It’s just not feasible that Cory Maye — a guy who had no criminal record, and who had no drugs in his home (or, at worst, had “trace amounts”) — would knowingly fire a gun at police who knocked on his door to serve a warrant. It’s far more likely that, had he known they were cops, a guy with no previous record and no drugs would have let them in. Particularly with his eighteen month old daughter alseep in the same home.

Also, keep in mind here that Maye only needs to establish reasonable doubt. You may be torn on whether or not Maye should have known the intruders were cops. But torn isn’t good enough. The prosecution’s burden is to prove that a reasonable person in Maye’s position should have known beyond a reasonable doubt that Jones was a cop. I’ll look at the transcript once I get it. But give the facts of the case we’ve been able to piece together so far, I just don’t see how that’s possible.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 10th, 2005 at 11:52 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Cory Maye. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.