Monday, June 04, 2007

No-Knock Warrants:Update



Meantime, a black man named Cory Maye was still sitting on death row in Mississippi, the last I heard, because he heard men trying to break into his Prentiss, Miss., home late at night in
December 2001, where he was alone with his 18-month-old daughter. Mr. Maye, who had no criminal record, got the child down onto the floor and lay down beside her to protect her. When one of the men finally broke into the bedroom, Cory Maye shot and killed him...........


In Virginia, a terror-stricken woman, a previous burglary victim, shot and killed a young police officer executing a 'no-knock' warrant as he burst into her bedroom in the middle of the night."

Astonishingly, although that officer was also the son of the local police chief, no prosecution resulted, so far as I've been able to learn. The old woman, waiting terrified behind her closed bedroom door, had repeatedly called out, "Who's in my house?" As with Chief Pennington in Atlanta, the bereaved Virginia chief said he would "review" his department's use of no-knock warrants..........

The African-American suspects -- who had moved -- were sought on suspicion of identity theft, not a violent crime. There was no suspected "stash" that could be flushed down a toilet.

So why didn't police knock at that door at suppertime, allowing a clothed couple to come to the door and calmly read their warrant before inviting police in to look around and confirm that the three African-Americans that police sought no longer lived there? more

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