In a rare show of unity between red and blue blogs, Battlepanda is urging the creation of a blogstorm from both sides of the political spectrum to create publicity about one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice in recent history, the case of Cory Maye, who is sitting on death row in Mississippi.

Maye's crime? Battlepanda links to the Agitator's excellent ongoing coverage:

Let's summarize: 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, frightened 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.

Hammer of Truth has been doing an excellent summarization of the case and has links to the blogs getting in on this, as well as contact information and letter suggestions for the governor of Mississippi.

Please take a few minutes to get familiar with this case. It is truly a travesty, and one in which blogs may really make the difference between life and death for one person. Believe it or not, the mainstream media is AWOL on this whole thing.

The influence of Tookie Williams isn't limited to street thugs and gang-bangers.  He's changed me and the way I think.  I've always been a supporter of capital punishment. My feeling has always been that if you take a life, you forfeit your own. I am a liberal, but I do hold some very conservative beliefs on a variety of issues. Crime and punishment has always been one of them. I've always believed that if you commit a crime, you reap the consequences. I still believe that. Law and order are essential to preserving our society. But over the last couple of years, I've seen a shifting in my belief about how we mete out punishment in this society. I look at our deeply flawed justice system and I can't help but wonder if it's not merely adding to the problems rather than alleviating them.

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