Please help save an innocent man from execution

From the original link,



Hopefully the appeals court has more sense than the original jury.

I don't understand how a wake-up-and-shoot-an-intruder could possibly qualify as premeditated. Isn't that a requirement for a first degree murder conviction in all 50 states? Tico? Joefromchicago? It also strikes me as being almost guaranteed to be overturned by a higher court. I can ill imagine it being turned down.

Signed petition. Thanks for linking it, MA!

I don't know about Mississippi Bill, but in Louisiana if you kill a police officer it is first degree murder no matter what. May be the same in Mississippi.

Wonderful! I am telling everyone. Got quite a few to sign it so far but we need everyone to do it!

Hmmm. One would think even that statute would require intent. How does one even prove intent when a man with no police record immediately surrenders upon learning he's shot at police? Doesn't follow that he'd shoot just one, were it his intent to shoot police, and what possible motive could there be? This has to be the shakiest conviction in history. I wonder if the jury was related to the deceased as well?

I was surprised when I found out about that law here in Louisiana. A police officer had been killed here shortly after I moved here. It wasn't quite the same thing though. I think it would have been a manslaughter charge if the deceased hadn't been a police officer. Also, if a police dog is shot here, it's murder. I don't know but this case is the saddest and most maddening thing I can think of. Relations between the police and blacks (in general) are not that good in Mississippi. They never have been unfortunately.

Things are getting better there but then something like this happens and it starts all over. I'm just really curious as to why this hasn't been in the public eye before now?

Had anyone out there heard of this before it was posted here?

Sorry it took me so long to post again, I was working most of the evening.

Thanks especially to you, Momma Angel, for taking up the call and posting the link to the petition and posting this to other boards.

Many of you who know me by my postings know that I am, politically, somewhere to the Right of Margaret Thatcher and a lifetime member of the Ronald Reagan Fan Club. I've been a staunch proponent of the death penalty and have stood firmly behind the forces of law and order (I have numerous family in law enforcement.), but this is as pure a case of railroading as has ever been.

If I had been in this mans place, I would have done exactly the same thing and here, in Florida anyway, they wouldn't have put me on death row. They might have charged me with manslaughter, but even THAT would have been hard to prove.

It has completely disgusted me ....

Sorry, to angry to type...

Be well all and thank you for your support.

The face of a man who was defending his family from an unknown intruder:



Would you have done anything different?

http://www.mayeisinnocent.com/

Fedral, years ago I too was a staunch proponent of the death penalty. Then I was 'able to see both sides of the issue'. Eventually I became staunchly opposed to it, which I remain today. It's partly due to cases like this that my position changed.

Until we can eliminate any innocent men/women being put to death, capital punishment should not exist!

A man has a right and an obligation to protect his home and his family. Had anyone bust into my house, my husband would have been on him like a fly on ****...cop or no cop. If this man is a heavy sleeper, he would never have heard them announce themselves before going into the house...my husband wouldn't hear that. He sleeps like a rock. And not to mention, being woke out of a dead sleep, you tend to be groggy. They should have been yelling "Police! Come out with your hands up." while in the house or something like that. Not to mention, what the f*** were they doing a raid at midnight for? Was there a reason to do that to a man with an 18 month old infant?


Perhaps he should serve time for killing a man...but die for protecting his baby? That is just about the worst thing I ever heard.

Would a cop have gotten the death penalty for shooting and killing Mayes had Mayes broken into his house? Would he even have gone to prision?

Bella, I agree. I'm not a George Ryan fan, but the moratorium he placed on executions in IL is the best thing he did as governor.

Ooo, now I am really burned....what in the hell were the police even doing in Mayes house??

Signed petetion from original link.

I hope everyone here does.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,184992,00.html

New article on this situation.

I've read so much stuff on this now that I don't know if I'll be able to retrace my steps and find it again, but I saw that there were instructions to the jury to consider 3 things. They were, if I remember right, 1) whether the officers had a warrant (they did, though unnamed -- it was just, basically, for the other apartment in the duplex, no mater who lived there), 2) whether they announced that they were police (they did), and 3) whether Mayes knew they were police (he did, sort of).

I'll see if I can find it again.

Note, I don't agree with it, and I'm not sure if the instructions were even valid, but that's what I remember seeing as how it happened (the conviction + death penalty) in the first place.

From Bella's link (Balko is evidently the main guy behind the blogosphere attention; he's covered this extensively):



It looks like "the intentional killing of a police officer" is the standard for capital murder. So it all hangs on whether he knew the guy was a police officer when he shot him.

On the first site posted, there is a link to Mississippis statutes with the parts that were used to justify the conviction and the death penalty bolded. Apparently, killing a police officer in order to prevent them from executing their duty was the aggravating circumstance. But in order to use that standard, the jury would have to believe that Maye intended to preven the police from serving him a warrant, which seems unlikely.

I think this was a "no knock" warrant -- the officer had to have a warrant, but I don't think he had to do anything in particular with it (like show it to Mayes).

Dang, wish I remembered where I ended up yesterday or at least some hooks to re-find it -- I was just following the links on various sites and was led pretty far afield.

If someone busts into my house and announces he or she is an officer of the law, do I have to believe them? Once inside my home, I, as an honest and law abiding citizen, have every right to shoot them in self defense.

Where is that petition?

Yeah, that's a point that's coming up all the time in the discussions I've seen... variations of "Great, so all a burglar/ home invader/ rapist has to do is yell 'Police'! and they've got it made..."