When Marcus and Maurice Taylor finally walked free, words failed them. Instead, there were hugs — long, unbroken embraces with their mother, their sisters, and their children.
For more than a decade, their contact with family had been limited to prison visits and phone calls. Eleven years of birthdays, school milestones, illnesses, and ordinary moments were gone.
Those years were taken away by an illegal sentence.
The Taylor brothers, identical twins, were convicted under Mississippi law of conspiracy to sell a Schedule III controlled substance. The crime carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years. Despite that limit, both men were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
They ultimately served 11 years behind bars before executive clemency corrected what the courts had allowed to stand.
In 2025, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves granted clemency to Marcus Taylor and later to Maurice Taylor, acknowledging that their sentences exceeded the legal maximum allowed by law.
Public records indicate these are the only known instances in which Reeves has exercised clemency during his tenure — and both involved unlawful sentencing.
Their sister, Linda Myers, describes the relief of having her brothers home as overwhelming, but incomplete.
“When the system gets it wrong, this is what happens,” Myers said. “Families suffer. Families are shattered. Children go without parents when you get it wrong.”
The harm extended far beyond the prison walls. While the twins were incarcerated, their mother was diagnosed with dementia. When Marcus and Maurice returned home, she did not recognize them.
“My mother was diagnosed with dementia while they were incarcerated a few years ago,” Myers said. “And when they came home, she did not recognize them. That also proved how much time had been lost.”
Marcus was released first. The family celebrated, but the separation took a visible toll on Maurice, who remained imprisoned for several months afterward.
“Everybody knows twins are connected,” Myers said. “They have that bond. And once Marcus was released, Maurice lost weight. It was hard on him.”
An advocacy effort intensified to bring Maurice home. The Mississippi Impact Coalition submitted documentation and formal requests for review to the attorney general’s office, the Mississippi Court of Appeals, and the solicitor general, arguing that Maurice’s continued incarceration was unjust.
That sustained push ultimately led to his release.
“If you become silent, you never get justice,” Myers said. “It can be 15 years, it can be 20 years — but there’s a breakthrough. This is a prime example right here.”
The Taylors’ case is striking not only for its personal cost, but for what it reveals about clemency in Mississippi.
Historically, governors have used the power sparingly, with rare exceptions such as the final days of former Gov. Haley Barbour’s administration in 2012.
Under Reeves, clemency has been virtually nonexistent, granted only when sentences were demonstrably illegal — not as a broader tool for mercy or reform. There have been no pardons issued under his administration. Publicly reported denials include high-profile cases in which he declined to intervene, reinforcing a philosophy that reserves clemency for extraordinary circumstances rather than systemic correction.
Nationally, however, the conversation is shifting. Across the country, states and the federal government are expanding “second-look” sentencing laws and other mechanisms to revisit excessive or outdated punishments.
These reforms aim to address the very kinds of failures that trapped the Taylor brothers — without requiring governors to step in after years of irreversible damage have already been done.
Tonight, Marcus and Maurice are doing what was impossible for more than a decade: sitting with family, sleeping in their own beds, preparing for job interviews, and beginning the long process of rebuilding their lives.
Their freedom, Myers says, is priceless — but incomplete.
She hopes their case serves as a warning.
For families still waiting, time lost to an illegal sentence is time that can never be returned.
