For the first time since taking office, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has granted executive clemency to an inmate.

Reeves announced Wednesday that he’s signed an executive order freeing Marcus Taylor, who the Republican said, “was illegally sentenced to 15 years in prison.”

Taylor, now 43, accepted a plea deal in February 2015 after being charged with conspiracy to sell a schedule III substance and was sentenced by a Choctaw County trial judge to 15 years based on recommendations made by the state. The Mississippi Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in May that the maximum sentence for Taylor’s crime, under state law, is five years.

“Today, for the first time since taking office in 2020, I have exercised my Constitutional authority to grant executive clemency by commuting the sentence imp

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