A cop on a drug bust barges into the wrong person's house in the middle of the night. The man who lives there with his daughter shoots the intruder and kills him. The guy who thought he was defending his home is on death row now. Even if you give the benefit of the doubt to the government's side of the story, it makes no sense to execute this guy. The police officer's death is another tragedy of the drug war, and just one more reason to end it. But it is not first-degree murder. When people defend their homes from intruders, they might sometimes use more force than is necessary, and tragedies can occur, but killing this guy is just insane.
This is what happens when you send the police to invade homes in the middle of the night. My friend points out that if the intruder were on drugs, it would be an open-shut case of self-defense. Murdering Cory Maye will be a horrific injustice, adding just more tragedy to this incident.
Apparently, Radley Balko has been paying a lot of attention to this whole mess and is trying to do something about it. Power to him.
Thanks to Tom Knapp and Gene Healy.
