Cory Maye

Smith was arrested without incident. Although some illicit drugs were found in his home, Maye's former attorney, Rhonda Cooper, says Smith was never charged with drug possession or distribution. They found a little more than a gram of marijuana, most of it old and ashen—at worst a misdemeanor. Jefferson Davis County District Attorney Claiborne "Buddy" McDonald says he does not remember Smith being charged or convicted.

On July 1, 2011, Judge Prentiss Harrell signed a plea agreement in which Maye pleaded guilty to manslaughter; Maye was then sentenced to ten years in prison, time he had already served. Maye was transferred to Rankin County, Mississippi for procedural paperwork and out-processing and was released on July 18, 2011.

On the morning of July 1, 2011, Maye was offered and accepted a plea agreement. Judge Prentiss Harrell of the 15th Circuit Court of Mississippi signed the agreement under which Maye pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for a ten-year sentence, which was decreed to be time served. Maye was then transferred to Rankin County, Mississippi for procedural paperwork and out-processing, and was released on July 18, 2011.

On June 24, 2010, the Mississippi Supreme Court granted petitions for writ of certiorari filed by both the State of Mississippi (arguing that the Court of Appeals' decision to grant Maye a new trial was erroneous) and Maye (arguing that the Court of Appeals erred in not vacating his conviction entirely and dismissing the charges for insufficient evidence, and advancing alternative grounds for a new trial).

On December 2, 2010, the Mississippi Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals' decision and granted Maye a new trial on the grounds that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury as Maye had requested on the nature of self-defense and defense of others (i.e., his daughter).

Maye's appeal was argued before the Mississippi Court of Appeals on June 4, 2009; on November 17, 2009, the court set aside his conviction and ordered a new trial on the grounds that he was denied his right to have the trial conducted in the county of the alleged crime.

On September 21, 2006, Maye's death sentence was unexpectedly overturned by Judge Michael Eubanks, who ruled that Maye had received incompetent legal representation during his sentencing phase, and ordered a new sentencing hearing. Maye was sentenced to life in prison. On November 17, 2009, the Mississippi Court of Appeals ruled that Maye's constitutional right of vicinage was violated when Judge Eubanks refused to return the case to Jefferson Davis County, where the alleged crime occurred. The en banc court reversed Maye's conviction and remanded the case for a new trial. The State of Mississippi appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. On December 2, 2010, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued its decision, in which it held that Maye was entitled to a new trial on the ground that the trial court had improperly refused to issue a self-defense instruction that would have highlighted for the jury Maye's right to act in defense of his infant daughter, who was present in the home on the night of the police raid that led to the shooting.

Maye is currently represented by Bob Evans, the original public defender in the case. Evans is the public defender for Jefferson Davis County, and was concurrently the public defender for the town of Prentiss, seat of Jefferson Davis County, until January 10, 2006, when he was fired by the Prentiss Board of Aldermen. According to the mayor of Prentiss, Charles Dumas, Evans' dismissal was directly related to his representation of Maye.

Maye entered MDOC on January 26, 2004. He was incarcerated in the State of Mississippi's male death row in Unit 32, a part of the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Sunflower County, and later in the Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood, Mississippi.

At 11 p.m. on the night of December 26, 2001, Ron Jones along with other police officers and an agent employed by the Pearl River Basin Narcotics Task Force, a four-county police agency responsible for drug enforcement, went to Maye's duplex for the purpose of drug interdiction. Jones, though not a member of the task force, had received a confidential tip that large quantities of marijuana were being stored and sold in the apartment of Jamie Smith, who lived in the other half of the duplex. The officers obtained search warrants for both apartments. Whether the warrants legally allowed for a no-knock entry is still not clear.

Cory Jermaine Maye (born September 9, 1980) is a former prisoner in the U.S. state of Mississippi. He was originally convicted of murder in the 2001 death of a Prentiss, Mississippi police officer Ron W. Jones, during a drug raid on the other half of Maye's duplex. Maye has said he thought that the intruders were burglars and did not realize they were police. He pleaded not guilty at his trial, citing self-defense. Nevertheless, Maye was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death. Maye's case attracted little attention until late 2005, when Reason magazine senior editor and police misconduct researcher Radley Balko brought it to light on his blog The Agitator. Balko's research raised several questions about Maye's conviction and in particular about the reliability of medical examiner Steven Hayne, who performed the autopsy on Jones and testified at the trial. According to Maye's supporters, his conviction also brought up issues such as the right to self-defense, police conduct in the War on Drugs, racial and social inequities in Mississippi and whether he received competent legal representation.