Radley Balko and the blogs win reprieve for Corey Maye

Crusading journalist Radley Balko announces that Corey Maye is no longer condemned to die:

Cory Maye will not sleep on death row tonight. Nor, for that matter, any night for the foreseeable future.

At the conclusion of the hearing today, Judge Michael Eubanks ruled on two of the defense team's battery of arguments. Both rulings from the bench tonight dealt with Rhonda Cooper's competence. Judge Eubanks found that Ms. Cooper was competent for the trial, but incompetent for the sentencing.

I have my quarrels with that ruling, obviously. But in the short run, it means that Cory will at the very least get a new sentencing trial. And until and if that happens, he will no longer be on death row -- and for the moment is no longer condemned to die.

Corey Maye is a Mississippi man who was sentenced to die after he shot and killed a police officer who mistakenly burst into Maye's home in the middle of the night on a "no knock" raid.

Angelica of Battle Panda compiled a list of all the blogs that protested Maye's unjust sentence.

Last year, CBS called the Corey May case an "interesting test of the power of the blogosphere."

Looks like the blogs passed the test and saved a guy's life.

Let's see if we can put some of that mojo to work on behalf of the Tripoli 6, the innocent health care workers on death row in Libya.

[Via Scott Lemieux.]

Comments

[Alon Levy]

That's really good news, in the same manner that merely being raped instead of murdered is good.

How I get both my new blog and my old one on the list?

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Presumably through Technorati.

[Battlepanda]

Hi Alon,
I use technorati, but sometimes I miss people. With this great news, I think another update is necessary and I'll be adding your blogs to the list at the update.