Governor Reeves Grants Executive Clemency For Second Time Since Taking Office

JACKSON, Miss. - Governor Tate Reeves today signed Executive Order 1591 which grants executive clemency to Maurice Taylor, who was illegally sentenced to 20 years in prison, with five years suspended. This is the second time Governor Reeves has granted executive clemency since taking office.

In February 2015, Maurice Taylor accepted a plea bargain and pled guilty to conspiracy to sell a Schedule III substance. The state of Mississippi recommended a twenty-year sentence, with five years suspended, which was accepted by the trial judge. At the time of sentencing, the maximum lawful sentence that could be imposed on Mr. Taylor pursuant to Miss. Code § 97-1-1 for the charge of conspiracy to sell a Schedule III controlled substance was five years.

"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," said Governor Tate Reeves. "A couple of weeks ago, my office was contacted for the first time by Maurice Taylor's post-conviction counsel and provided a copy of Mr. Taylor's indictment, plea petition, sentencing order, transcript of the sentencing hearing and other documents from the Circuit Court file.

"These documents confirm that, like his brother, Maurice Taylor received a sentence more than three times longer than allowed under Mississippi law. 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.

"Accordingly, I have signed Executive Order 1591 which commutes Maurice Taylor's sentence to time served and instructs the Mississippi Department of Corrections to release him. When justice is denied to even one Mississippian, it is denied to us all."

Executive Order 1591 directs the Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections to release Mr. Taylor within five days.

A copy of Executive Order 1591 can be found here.