The head of the Alabama Parole Board on Thursday questioned why the state should grant parole to a 68-year-old dying man who served 11 years of a life sentence for growing marijuana in Florala.
William Hank Taylor is already home on medical furlough because Alabama prison commissioner John Hamm deemed him safe enough to die at home. Medical furlough is a separate process by the Alabama Department of Corrections, which allows certain inmates who are permanently incapacitated or dying to be conditionally released and receive their medical treatments at home.
But the parole board chairperson, Leigh Gwathney, questioned that decision on Thursday during Taylor’s parole hearing.
Taylor’s attorney, Ashleigh Woodham with the nonprofit Redemption Earned, listed a slew of medical conditions Taylor suffers from, including renal cell carcinoma, congestive heart failure and cirrhosis.
“Which of these conditions existed at the time of the sentencing?” asked Gwathney, a former state prosecutor.
Taylor was sent to prison for marijuana trafficking, after he and his brother were caught growing marijuana on his property and surrounding lots in Florala, a small town near the Florida border. The state’s three-strikes law led to a life sentence.
“What treatment is he currently receiving?” Gwathney questioned.
The back and forth continued, with Woodham providing documents from Taylor’s hospice nurse. “That’s basically keeping him comfortable,” the attorney said, adding that Taylor was expected to live less than six months.
“Yes ma’am, the board is aware of what hospice means,” Gwathney replied.
Outside the Alabama Department of Pardons & Paroles on May 2, 2024, in downtown Montgomery, Ala. John Sharp | jsharp@al.com
The Taylors
Taylor had last been denied parole in August 2023, a year when the parole board routinely denied nearly every eligible inmate, releasing only 8 percent. He was set to wait the maximum amount of time until his next hearing—until August 2028.
Records show he hasn’t had any disciplinaries in prison, and has only been given a single citation for smoking in the wrong place. He’s also spent time on work release over the years, meaning he worked jobs outside of prison walls without direct supervision. And, his boss at the time of the last parole hearing wrote him a letter of support. A prison correctional officer wrote a letter of support, too, in 2022.
His boss at the work release center told the board at the time that Taylor was an “unusually good worker,” respectful and productive.
Despite the five-year wait until his next hearing, his lawyer was able to get him an earlier hearing due to his medical issues, under what’s called medical parole.
Since last summer, Woodham said, Taylor had been hospitalized four times. And two days after he left prison on furlough in January and headed to his sister’s home in south Alabama, he was taken back to a local hospital.
He now uses a walker, and suffers from at least seven chronic conditions.
Taylor was sentenced to life in prison under Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender Act, though his prior crimes weren’t for violence. He had a criminal past of grand larceny, receiving stolen property, possession of marijuana and disorderly conduct.
He was indicted for the marijuana charge in 2015, two years after state police got a tip of a marijuana growing operation in Florala. An Alabama Law Enforcement Agency helicopter flew over the property and spotted the plants.
The podium where supporters speak at the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles in Montgomery, Alabama, January 9, 2024. Tamika Moore| AL.com
Taylor was convicted under the state’s trafficking cannabis law, which criminalizes over 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 growing pot. And he, too, was released on medical furlough, in December. But the younger Taylor died of lung cancer in February, two weeks before his parole hearing was set for March 6.
Medical furlough is used rarely in Alabama, and is considered a relief valve to free up vital bed space and medical staff time. Over the last 10 years, an average of just seven people were placed on medical furlough each year.
Medical parole
Woodham told the board that the prison system got it right in letting Taylor go home. “Mr. Taylor is not dangerous and he undoubtedly qualifies for medical parole,” she said.
Then, the questioning began.
“What would be the benefit to Mr. Taylor of being medically paroled as opposed to his current status of medical furlough?” asked Gwathney.
Woodham explained how the rules for the two statuses are different. Under furlough, there are restrictions on how far someone can travel from their home, even to receive medical treatment. But Gwathney pressed for a specific reason, and Woodham supposed Taylor could choose to have a second medical opinion at UAB Hospital or another institution in another part of the state.
Inmates on medical furlough are still supervised by the prison system. Woodham said the prison only has one social worker and two officers overseeing furlough for the entire state.
“As a practical matter, the system needs to move him over to the parole side. He just doesn’t need the level of supervision that furlough requires.”
But Gwathney didn’t get the answer she was looking for.
“In case my question wasn’t very clear,” she started. “Is there anything that you know of, as his attorney, that he is being limited to right now, any service that he cannot receive under medical furlough that you are seeking?”
After Gwathney’s questioning, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office opposed parole for Taylor. The office’s representative called him a “habitual offender” and said that “based on his criminal history” he wasn’t a good candidate for parole.
This image shows Alabama inmates who were up for parole in April 2023. That month, 299 were denied, 12 had their hearings continued and 40 were paroled. In this series, Denied: Alabama’s broken parole system, AL.com highlights several recent cases. Justin Yurkanin | jyurkanin@al.com
They asked the board to deny parole and set off his next hearing for as long as possible.
But voting patterns changed at the Alabama parole board last year, as the board began letting out more and more inmates, often on split votes. In fiscal year 2024, the board released 20 percent of eligible inmates.
This time, the board voted unanimously.
Taylor’s parole was granted by all three members—including Gwathney. He was ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor. He was one of two men granted parole Thursday morning, while six more serving murder or manslaughter charges were denied.
William Hank Taylor is already home on medical furlough, although he got a life sentence for growing marijuana in south Alabama. Read More
