Here’s a little tidbit that’s not in the trial transcripts. It’s hearsay, so take it for what it’s worth. But I head it from Bob Evans, Cory Maye’s current counsel. And Maye says it happened in the judge’s chambers, with witnesses. In fact, he’s planning to use it in both the appeal and in his petition for a new trial, so it’s hard to think he’d be making it up.

In any case, apparently after Maye had been convicted, the judge convened privately with counsel for both sides, and asked each side for its jury instructions for the death penalty phase of the trial. Maye’s attorney, Rhonda Cooper, apparently told the judge she didn’t have any jury instructions. When he asked why, she said hadn’t drawn any up because she hadn’t expected the trial to get to the death penalty phase. Evans says every jaw in the room hit the floor.

Keep this in mind when we look at questioning of the defense witnesses in the death penalty phase of the trial.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 22nd, 2005 at 4:32 pm 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.