For the second time this month, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is granting executive clemency to an inmate.
On Wednesday, the Republican signed an executive order to give sentencing leniency to Maurice Taylor. According to Reeves, Taylor was illegally sentenced to 20 years in prison, with five years suspended. In February 2015, Taylor accepted a plea bargain on a conspiracy to sell a schedule III substance charge. The state recommended his current sentence, which was accepted by the trial judge. At the time of sentencing, the maximum lawful sentence that could be imposed on Taylor for the charge was five years.
A familiar name to Reeves, Maurice Taylor is the brother of Marcus Taylor, the first-ever inmate granted clemency by the governor in his nearly six years in office. Marcus was granted clemency on Dec. 10 after being illegally sentenced on the same charge as his brother.
“Today, for the second time as governor, I have exercised my Constitutional authority to grant executive clemency by commuting an illegal sentence imposed on Maurice Taylor, the brother of Marcus Taylor, who was granted clemency earlier this month,” Reeves stated.
Reeves noted that he was provided with information that proved Maurice, like his brother, had been handed a sentence that far surpassed the legal limits. This prompted the governor to exercise an authority that he has rarely utilized.
“These documents confirm that, like his brother, Maurice Taylor received a sentence more than three times longer than allowed under Mississippi law,” Reeves continued. “Specifically, Maurice Taylor was sentenced in 2015 to a term of 20 years, with five years suspended, for the offense of conspiracy to sell a Schedule III controlled substance, a crime that at the time carried a maximum sentence of five years.
“Thus, the sentence imposed on Maurice Taylor plainly is illegal. Mr. Taylor has now served more than 11 years of his sentence (with credit for pretrial detention), and further service of this sentence in excess of the five-year statutory maximum constitutes a mischarge of justice.”
The commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Burl Cain, has been ordered by Reeves to release Maurice within the next five days.