The Story of Cory Maye

A tragedy on so many different levels.

The 30-second version: on the day after Christmas 2001, 20 year old Cory Maye who had no prior criminal record was asleep with his girlfriend and their baby daughter in their apartment, he was awakened after hearing an intruder in the house, in the haze of sleep he shot and killed the intruder.

A tragic but a justifiable case of self-defense?

Not quite.

The intruder was a police officer on a drug bust of the wrong apartment, Cory is black, the police officer was white and the son of the chief of police, and this all happened in rural southern Mississippi. Not a good mix by any stretch of the imagination.

Cory was convicted of murder and sentenced to death but surprisingly it didn't end there.