Cory Maye, the Mississippi man convicted of murdering police officer Ron Jones in a 2001 drug raid, has been spared the death penalty, at least for a time.
Judge Michael Eubanks found that Maye’s lawyer represented him adequately during his trial, but not during the penalty phase. Two days ago, the judge, who had ordered Maye’s death by lethal injection in 2004, ordered a new sentencing hearing.
Radley “the Agitator” Balko calls this “a small but lovely victory.”
Chance for life. A new hearing might present just enough mitigating testimony to reduce Maye’s sentence to life in prison. And that’s about the harshest penalty there is.
Frank Warner
I'd take death over prison for life as well, but so many criminals fight for life in prison when on death row, I'm inclined to believe we are in the minority.
Posted by: Kevin | September 24, 2006 at 12:38 AM
No, I think you'd take prison for life over the death penalty when it came down to it. Because being alive, in a lousy place is better than being dead in any place. And that's a simple fact of how people think.
The death penalty is the final tool society uses to end horrible criminals, warn others, and deal with evil in their midst.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor | September 24, 2006 at 10:50 AM
I'm with Kevin if I really knew that I wasn't getting out. I wouldn't want to live in a cage. The thing that makes them choose life is the slim hope of freedom. You never know. Prisoners have been freed on technicalities and after catastrophes, natural and political. For some of them, though, life in prison might actually be better than what they had on the streets.
Posted by: jj mollo | September 24, 2006 at 12:36 PM
Yikes! A new study shows "each execution results in five fewer homicides, and commuting a death sentence means five more homicides."
Posted by: Kevin | June 11, 2007 at 09:22 AM
/a. heh. oops!
Posted by: Kevin | June 11, 2007 at 09:23 AM