Mercy Seat

The blogosphere is ablaze with the case of Cory Maye, a man who now sits on Mississippi's death row. The details of his case read like a TV melodrama made horribly real:

Cops mistakenly break down the door of a sleeping man, late at night, as part of drug raid. Turns out, the man wasn't named in the warrant, and wasn't a suspect. The man, frigthened for himself and his 18-month old daughter, fires at an intruder who jumps into his bedroom after the door's been kicked in. Turns out that the man, who is black, has killed the white son of the town's police chief. He's later convicted and sentenced to death by a white jury. The man has no criminal record, and police rather tellingly changed their story about drugs (rather, traces of drugs) in his possession at the time of the raid.

Thanks to Radley Balko of The Agitator for both breaking this story and keeping on top of the details. Whatever your opinion of the death penalty, this case is a travesty. Please write to Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and urge him to do the right thing.