Questions from the Board of the Board of the Account Alabama Liberation from dying prisoner that serves life for marijuana

The head of the Alabama probation Board questioned Thursday why the State should grant probation to a 68 -year -old dying man who served 11 years of life imprisonment for the cultivation of marijuana in Flora.

William Hank Taylor is already at the home of a medical permit because Alabama’s prison commissioner John Hamm considered it safe enough to die at home. Medical permit It is a process separated by the Alabama Corrections Department, which allows certain inmates who are permanently incapacitated or die that are conditionally released and receive their medical treatments at home.

But the President of the Board of ProbationLeigh Gwathney, questioned that decision on Thursday during Taylor’s probation hearing.

Taylor’s lawyer, Ashleight Woodham, with non -profit redemption won, listed a series of medical conditions suffered by Taylor, which includes renal cell carcinoma, congestive heart failure and cirrhosis.

“Which of these conditions existed at the time of the sentence?” Gwathney asked, a former state prosecutor.

Taylor was sent to prison for marijuana traffic, after he and his brother were caught growing marijuana in his property and surrounding lots in Floral, a small town near the Florida border. The law of three positions of the State led to a life imprisonment.

“What treatment is currently receiving?” Gwathney questioned.

The round trip continued, with Woodham providing documents from the Nurse of Hospicio de Taylor. “That basically keeps him comfortable,” said the lawyer, added that Taylor was expected to live less than six months.

“Yes, Madam, the Board is aware of what Hospice means,” Gwathney replied.

Outside the Department of Persons and Paroles of Alabama on May 2, 2024, in the center of Montgomery, Ala. John Sharp | [email protected]

The Taylors

Taylor had been the last time probation In August 2023, a year when the Board of Probation routinely denied almost all eligible inmates, releasing only 8 percent. He was ready to wait for the maximum amount of time until his next audience, until August 2028.

The records show that he has not had disciplinary in prison, and has only been given a single appointment for smoking in the wrong place. Time has also passed in the release of work over the years, which means that he worked in works outside the prison walls without direct supervision. And, his boss at the time of the last probation hearing wrote a support letter. A correctional prison officer also wrote a support letter in 2022.

His boss at the work release center told the Board at that time that Taylor was an “unusually good worker,” respectful and productive.

Despite the five -year waiting until his next hearing, his lawyer was able to obtain a previous hearing due to his medical problems, under what is called probation.

Since last summer, Woodham said, Taylor had been hospitalized four times. And two days after he left the prison in a permit in January and went to his sister’s house in southern Alabama, he was taken back to a local hospital.

Now use a walker and suffer from at least seven chronic conditions.

Taylor was sentenced to life imprisonment under the usual act of serious crimes of Alabama, although his previous crimes were not for violence. He had a major criminal past, receiving stolen property, possession of marijuana and disorderly behavior.

He was accused For the position of marijuana In 2015, two years after the State Police obtained a tip of a marijuana culture operation in Floral. A helicopter from the Alabama Law Application Agency flew over the property and saw the plants.

The podium where followers speak at the Alabama Forgive and Paroles Office in Montgomery, Alabama, January 9, 2024. Tamika Moore | Al.com

Taylor was convicted under the State Traffic Cannabis Law, which criminalizes more than 2.2 pounds but less than 100 pounds or marijuana or any part of the plant.

His brother, Gerald Taylor, was also in prison for the cultivation of marijuana. And he was also released in a medical permit, in December. But the young Taylor died of lung cancer in February, two weeks before his audience on probation was scheduled for March 6.

The medical permit is rarely used in Alabama, and is considered a relief valve to release the vital space of the bed and the time of medical staff. In the last 10 years, an average of only seven people was placed in a medical permit every year.

Probation

Woodham told the Board that the prison system did the right thing to let Taylor go home. “Lord. Taylor is not dangerous and certainly qualifies for medical probation,” he said.

Then, the interrogation began.

“What would be the benefit for Mr. Taylor to be medically on probation instead of his current state of medical permission?” Gwathney asked.

Woodham explained how the rules for the two states are different. Under the license, there are restrictions on to what extent someone can travel from home, even to receive medical treatment. But Gwathney pressed for a specific reason, and Woodham assumed that Taylor could choose to have a second medical opinion at the UAB hospital or another institution in another part of the state.

Inmates in medical permit are still supervised by the penitentiary system. Woodham said the prison only has one social worker and two officers who supervise permission for the entire State.

“As a practical issue, the system needs to move it next to probation. It simply does not need the level of supervision required by permission. ”

But Gwathney did not receive the answer he was looking for.

“In case my question was not very clear,” he began. “Is there something that knows, like your lawyer, to which it is limited at this time, any service that you cannot receive under a medical permit you are looking for?”

After Gwathney’s questions, the Alabama Attorney General’s office opposed probation for Taylor. The office representative called him a “usual offender” and said that “based on his criminal record” he was not a good candidate for probation.

This image shows Alabama inmates who were ready on probation in April 2023. That month, it refused 299, 12 continued their audiences and 40 were on probation. In this series, denied: Alabama’s broken probation system, Al.com highlights several recent cases. Justin Yurkanin | [email protected]

They asked the Board to deny probation and begin their next audience as long as possible.

But the voting patterns changed at the Alabama’s probation board last year, since the Board began to leave out more and more inmates, often in divided votes. In fiscal year 2024, The Board released 20 percent of eligible inmates.

This time, the Board voted unanimously.

Taylor’s probation was granted by the three members, including Gwathney. He was ordered to use a GPS ankle monitor. It was one of the two men granted probation on Thursday morning, while six more murder or homicide positions were denied.