by Paul Jacob

A man's life hangs in the balance. Whose judgment do you trust, twelve duly appointed jurors or one lone blogger? Normally, I'd say "the jury," but the facts in the case of Mr. Cory Maye has me favor a blogger, Radly Balko. Before Balko caught whiff of the case, Mr. Maye languished on death row. Balko uncovered some very disturbing facts, and Maye now has hope.

Maye pleaded self-defense for shooting a police officer who burst into his apartment in the night. His guilt or innocence depends on whether Maye heard the officer shout "police!" There's a lot of reason to doubt that, as Balko has shown. One huge bit of evidence is a missing witness. Maye wasn't named on the warrant that led to the police raid. His neighbor, Jamie Smith, was.

And the police do say that Smith was found with a huge quantity of marijuana.

But the police can't explain why Smith was never charged with this crime.

Further, Smith was not called as a witness in Maye's trial. In fact, he's vanished.

The odor you smell? Not burnt weed, but the stench of a cover-up.

Radly Balko is doing for Maye what documentary filmmaker Errol Morris did for Randall Adams in "The Thin Blue Line": uncover a conspiracy of deceitful prosecution and shoddy police work.

And, I hope, save a life.

I've talked about Maye before . . . and may again. Repetition is better than injustice.

Common Sense is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org.