editorial comment Police conduct in the war on drugs? About at the same level as the conduct of the Bush administration from Gitmo to Iraq, by-passing New Orleans, and wire tapping abou the whole country. Time to change the anthem to the "land of the wuss', as it seems Americans (especially the self-described tough guys from the red states) are afraid of their own shadows.

For those of you who are new to the story, Cory Maye is a prisoner on death row in the U.S. state of Mississippi. He was convicted of murder in the death of Prentiss police officer Ron W. Jones, during a drug raid in 2001. Maye pleaded not guilty at his trial, citing self-defense as the reason. There has been significant activity across the blogosphere about Maye, where he has drawn considerable support from conservative, liberal, libertarian and independent websites.

His supporters say the conviction and sentence raise issues about the right to self defense, police conduct in the War on Drugs, and racial and social inequities in the region. They also raise questions about whether he has received competent legal representation. The story was first raised by commentator and blogger Radley Balko. Balko’s website now serves as a focal point for the case. There is also a wiki for Maye. Several ongoing letter writing campaigns hope to gain the attention of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who is entrusted with the legal authority to grant a full pardon to Maye.

While the story is all over the Internet, there seems to be a very limited amount of coverage by other forms of media. The Rocky Mountain News gave Cory a minor mention yesterday. Balko appeared on the Charles Goyette radio program in Phoenix, and is scheduled to appear on the Alan Colmes radio show Wednesday evening at 11pm Eastern. The issue has been covered on the CBS News blog, as well as twice (1, 2) at the MS-NBC blog. As they are certainly aware of the issue by now, there is no longer any excuse for the mainstream media to continue to ignore the issue.

Balko raised a question on his website:

Bob Evans, Maye’s current attorney, has emailed me about setting up a legal defense fund. He says he’ll open a bank account, and contributions could be sent to him in trust for Corey. Evans says he’d set it up so that withdrawals could be made only with Maye or his family’s permission. He asked what I thought of the idea. It sounds good to me. But I wanted to tap y’alls collective wisdom. Is that all there is to it? What are the tax rammifications for Evans and/or Maye? Seems to me some state or federal agency would need to sign off on it. But I know nothing about this. Email me if you have some expertise.

I’ve never set up a legal defense fund before, but I will make one recommendation. Whomever sets up the account should obtain a PayPal (or similar) account and provide the necessary code so people can easily add a button to their own website. There are a lot of people across the web who would place the button on their site and help out with the grassroots fundrasing campaign.

Additionally, Balko is waiting for court transcripts from the Maye case, which he plans to post online. He also stated:

I spoke on Friday with a rep from a large, prestigious D.C. law firm. At the time of that conversation, things still looked pretty good for said firm to lend pro bono assistance to Maye’s appeal. I’ll keep you posted.

The Cory Maye issue is one where fans of both Charlton Heston and Sarah Brady can be on the same team. It is an issue that both sides of the Tookie Williams debate can unite upon. Black and white alike (other skin tones, as well) can stand side by side in defense of Cory Maye. His story is not one of red states and blue states — but of red, white and blue all working together. It is the holiday season, and what better cause might there be than to restore the life and hope of an innocent man — a man who will be sitting alone on death row on Christmas Day.

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