Glenn Reynolds has more from Radley Balko, in which Radley comes close to expressing my thoughts:

Put yourself in Maye's shoes.  You have no criminal record. You've done nothing wrong. In the middle of the night, in a bad neighborhood, you awake to find someone attempting to break down your door. The door flies open, and a man in black paramilitary gear comes storming into your bedroom, where your infant daughter also happens to be sleeping.

Not only is that set of circumstances "reasonable ground" to think that someone is about to do you "great personal injury," and that you're in "imminent danger" of said personal injury being accomplished, you'd be crazy not to take quick action to defend yourself.

The SWAT team was in Maye's home illegally.  And they failed to exercise due dilligence in obtaining the search warrant, given that they were obviously unaware that the target of the warrant was a duplex with a second residence.  These are facts.

 

Let me add this: there have been documented cases of home invaders masquerading as police, even of crooked cops executing home invasions in uniform.  So just because the guy(s) kicking down the door is (are) wearing tactical gear the shouting "POLICE!" doesn't mean a person doesn't have legitimate reason to be in fear for his life, or the lives of others in the house.  Especially if, as in this case, the homeowner hasn't committed any crime, doesn't have a warrant for his arrest or the search of his home, and thus has no reason to expect the police to be crashing through his door.

Whether or not Officer Jones identified himself upon crashing through the door is also in dispute.  The police apparently say they did-though whether this was before entering the other half of the duplex, or specifically before entering Maye's residence, is unclear.  According to Maye's testimony (which I saw on another site, which caused IE to crash when I navigated away from it), the police didn't ID themselves until AFTER he shot Jones.  Can anyone out there say, "reasonable doubt?"

Even if Jones had identified himself, he, and any officers with him, were trespassing.  Why?  Because the warrant did not allow them to enter or search Maye's portion of the duplex.  This means they had no right to be there.  And when they kicked in his door, they became guilty of illegal forced entry.  I'm not sure if that can be a felony in Mississippi or not.  Generally, unless you live in a socialist governed part of the world such as England, Kalifornia, or Massachusetts, if a homeowner shoots and kills someone who is trespassing on his property in the middle of the night, someone who forced his way into the homeowner's house, the police and the local DA give it a quick look, pronounce "self defense," and that's the end of it.  Especially in a small town, and especially in a state like Mississippi.  Of course, normally, the trespasser/home invader isn't a cop, much less the son of the police chief.

From my point of view, the person responsible for Officer Jones' death is the raid commander.  He was responsible for the conduct of the raid, which means he was responsible for the failure to do the research and recon of the target building.  And figurinig out that there were two residences shouldn't have been that difficult.  Any number of people and/or agencies could have told the police that there were two residences.  Like, for exemple, the mailman for the area.  He could have told them that there was 123 Main Street and 123A.  Or the city/county building department-which, if I was the charge, I would have gone to in any case, to get floor plans of the target if possible.  Or the utility, phone, and cable companies. 

The entire incident is a tragedy, a tragedy that has been made worse by Maye's tragically incompetent lawyer.  I'd urge people to contact Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour at 1-877-405-0733 (there's no email link on his website), but I think, politically, it is almost impossible for him to pardon Corey Maye if he wants to be reelected.  Pardoning a 'cop killer' lends itself to sound bite attacks that require lengthy explanations.  But if he did have the political courage to do the right thing, I think he'd immediately go to the top of my list for GOP nominees for Pres in '08.