Free Cory Maye

This is one of those cases that unites good people across the political spectrum. Cory Maye was sentenced to death for shooting an intruder in his home late at night, fearing for the life of his daughter sleeping in the next room. It turns out the intruder was a police officer with a warrant, though apparently intended for Maye's next-door neighbor.

The left is rightly outraged because Maye is a poor, black man in the South, and the details of the "justice" he got are appalling. Conservatives, who believe in the right to self-defense, can see themselves in his shoes, though they are much less likely to be the targets of erroneous warrants, and they would receive a more competent defense and more sympathetic prosecution and jury. Libertarians are horrified by the loss of Constitutional rights and the sanctity of our homes in the futile "War on Drugs."

Radley Balko has a great article in Reason. Read the whole thing.

HT: Ang's Weird Ideas.