Marcus Taylor should have been freed years ago. Mississippi courts refuse to release him

Associated Press

a day ago

Marcus Taylor has been incarcerated for 10 years, serving a sentence that should have ended five years ago.
In 2015, a judge sentenced the husband and father to 15 years in prison for conspiring to sell an opioid combination pain-relief medication – a schedule III controlled substance. But he spent eight years in jail before anyone realized the maximum sentence for his crime by law was five years. In May, the Mississippi Court of Appeals recognized that Taylor was serving a sentence 10 years longer than the legal maximum, but refused to order his release despite making note of the mistake, arguing that the issue was raised too late.
Taylor, now 43, was indicted in 2014 on two counts of conspiracy to sell controlled substances, and one count of business burglary for breaking and entering a drugstore to steal them. In February 2015, he took what he thought was an advantageous deal: he pleaded guilty to the first count, and the two others were dismissed. But the plea petition was riddled with mistakes. It erroneously said the maximum sentence for conspiracy to sell schedule III controlled substances was 20 years – not five years. And no one in the court, including his lawyer, realized his sentence was 10 years longer than the legal maximum.
It's only after he challenged his sentence in 2023, demanding eligibility for parole, that the problem surfaced. The Choctaw County Circuit Court denied Taylor's motion for post-conviction relief, because he filed it past the three-year deadline of his conviction.
After investigating the issue for over a year, the appellate court ruled on May 6 this year that Taylor was indeed serving a sentence 10 years longer than authorized by law – meaning he should have been released in 2020. Yet, in a five-five decision, the court of appeals decided Taylor should still serve the rest of his wrongful sentence – because he didn't file his request in time.
The court invoked a 2023 ruling by the Mississippi Supreme Court in Howell v. State of Mississippi, which put an end to the fundamental rights exception – an exemption to the three-year time limit to file a post-conviction relief claim, made to ensure individuals don't stay unconstitutionally incarcerated.
The Mississippi Court of Appeals is obligated to follow the Supreme Court precedent, said Matthew Steffey, professor at the Mississippi College School of Law.
'This is the expected outcome of Howell, that there are going to be meritorious claims that are shut down for these technical limits,' he said. 'That's why many people, including dissenters on the Court of Appeals, believe it's wrong.'
Indeed, despite this Supreme Court ruling, half the judges were ready to grant Taylor relief.
'All Mississippians have the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, and to incarcerate Taylor beyond the time authorized by law infringes upon that fundamental right,' Judge David Neil McCarty wrote in a dissenting opinion.
But if the result is tied in a Court of Appeals, common practice calls for the court to confirm the original decision, Steffey said.
On June 2, Taylor filed a motion for rehearing, asking the Court of Appeals to reconsider its application of Howell, saying his incarceration is a deprivation of his constitutional rights. But the Court of Appeals could still refuse to rehear the case.
In case of an unfavorable ruling, Taylor's lawyer, Damon Stevenson, said they were ready to take the case to the Mississippi Supreme Court. If it agrees to examine Taylor's case, the Supreme Court could clarify how the law should be applied in cases like Taylor's.
'I do think one has to reinterpret Mississippi Supreme Court precedent to give Mr. Taylor relief, and that's more a job for the Supreme Court than the court of appeals,' Steffey said.
Many hope Taylor's case and potential release could set a precedent and protect others in the same situation. Mississippi courts have refused to grant relief to incarcerated people serving expired sentences in the past, even before Howell.
'We could get a clear law in the state of Mississippi that says there are certain rights that are not abridged by time: at any point that injustice is recognized, the court can step in and right it,' Stevenson said.
The escalation of the case has led the Capital Post-Conviction Counsel to step in. On June 4, it filed an amicus brief – additional information and legal arguments given to the court to assist them in their decision, in support of Taylor's motion for rehearing. Although the state office normally assists individuals sentenced to death in Mississippi, it has expertise in helping people file post-conviction petitions, just like Taylor.
The attorney general's office, which represents the state of Mississippi in the case, rapidly opposed the counsel's intervention, demanding that the Court reject its brief. The AG's office argued that the Capital Post-Conviction Counsel's involvement was 'neither necessary nor appropriate,' and that it had filed the brief too late.
To Stevenson, the attorney general's office's immediate opposition shows a broader pattern of combativeness against defendants, at the expense of fairness and justice.
'At this point, it's our position that Mr. Taylor has actually moved from being a defendant to a victim,' Stevenson said. 'The attorney general's office has to take an honest look at this case and say, 'Do we really want to be on the side of fighting for people to stay incarcerated who legally do not belong in a prison cell?''
Defendants' rights are often overlooked although they are an essential part of a fair judicial process, because severity sells electorally, and ultimately, judges are elected public officials, Steffey said.
'Judges campaign promising to be fair, or to be tough and fair, or to be tough, all of which sends a signal that they are part of the crime fighting community,' Steffey said. 'You hear a lot about justice for victims, very little about justice for the accused.'
While the Court of Appeals still hasn't decided whether to rehear Taylor's case or not, his children are growing up without him. And his wife, Kimberly Brown Taylor, is raising them alone.
When she started dating Taylor in 2008, Brown Taylor already had a baby, Joshua, who is 19 now. Taylor treated him like his own, she said. They still write each other letters. With Taylor, she had another son, Blakeland, who is 13 and has not seen his father since he got incarcerated when he was just a baby.
'It has been kind of hard on me as a single parent,' Brown Taylor said. ' I haven't slept at night at all since he's been gone.'
When Taylor was incarcerated, Brown Taylor found herself having to assume the financial and personal charge of raising two kids. She went back to college and studied accounting. She worked two jobs until she became an accountant. Just like everyone else, she had no idea his sentence was above the legal maximum. She's angry about the time lost and worried about Taylor's mental health.
'For someone to sit in there past that time, I guess the extra five years, that can mess with someone mentally,' she said. 'He could have been there, being that father to my son, giving me relief, giving my son the loving that he needed.'
Brown Taylor says she keeps Blakeland and Joshua informed about their dad's case everyday, but they still don't understand why he can't come home. Blakeland feels like a part of his childhood was stripped away. He said he wishes his father could watch his basketball games and participate in school father-son events with him.
'I just feel like my dad should be at home. It's eating me alive,' Blakeland said.
Taylor might very well serve the five remaining years of his original sentence, if the Court of Appeals or the Mississippi Supreme Court don't rule in his favor. His lawyer argues he has far served his time, and should be brought back into the community.
'When people make mistakes, it is totally acceptable to ask them to pay their debt to society,' Stevenson said. 'However, their debt should not be greater than what is allowed by law.'
Time passes and incomprehension grows in the Taylor family. It gets a little harder everyday to understand why Taylor remains incarcerated.
'God gives all of us chances after chances after chances. So why can't they or whomever allow Marcus to have a chance?' Brown Taylor said.
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This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.