Exonerated after 33 years, Jacksonville man learns his fate in new conviction
Edward Clayton Taylor spent 33 years in prison knowing he was wrongfully convicted in the 1986 rape of a Jacksonville child before being paroled in 2019 and officially exonerated three years later.
His freedom was short-lived as he found trouble again while out on the town celebrating the three-year anniversary of being released. He previously told the same judge who vacated his sentence and sex offender status that he felt threatened by the man he shot two years ago and was standing his ground.
Friday, the 60-year-old will learned whether Judge London Kite would show any leniency in sentencing him back to prison. He faced 25 years to life. She gave him 40.
The man he shot provided a victim impact statement, and Taylor’s mother spoke on video over the phone. At times in tears, Taylor addressed Kite as well about his remorse and regrets, but at one point she had to cut him off from further incriminating himself.
In his previous letter to the judge, Taylor said he was “ashamed to be back in front of you, after you extended me true justice by exoneration from that horrible … wrongful conviction!” Jurors still found him guilty on Dec. 20.
In the arrest report, investigators said Taylor matched the suspect’s description when they spotted him preparing to change a tire from his shot-up car on Spearing Street shortly after the June 24, 2022, shooting. He told them he was there on Odessa Street and A. Philip Randolph Boulevard when he heard gunfire and decided to leave. But his car was hit by bullets and disabled.
Security video from the area shows him walking up to the 61-year-old victim and shooting him in the chest and chasing a second person who was with him, according to the report. A crowd gathered and several fired at Taylor as he took off.
Exonerated man arrested again: Mother warned son to ‘stay away’ from Jacksonville’s Eastside
In his nine-page letter to the judge, he said the first man had acted hostile toward him and then went and got a “gang-banger” who had a gun and they were walking briskly toward him and his “lady friend” when he took action.
He wrote that he’s never been a violent man and instead will go out of his way to avoid trouble, but he is not a coward.
“So, when trouble goes out of its way (as what happened that night) I will protect myself, my family and my property!” he stated in his letter. “The U.S. Constitution guarantees me (and every American) the right. I don’t believe I was wrong in my actions that night. … I did stand my ground.”
What happened in Edward Taylor’s wrongful arrest?
Taylor was originally arrested in 1986 after it was determined a 4-year-old girl who lived next door had been sexually assaulted. She told investigators it was her friend’s “daddy” and identified Taylor in a photo spread. But other relatives lived at the same home as Taylor, and the actual suspect’s photo was not included, according to a motion to dismiss the conviction. Several years later it was learned that man had been arrested for molesting four other girls younger than 12.
Anatomy of a wrongful conviction: Men spent 43 years behind bars for a crime they didn’t commit
Then The Innocence Project, a criminal justice reform group, began investigating Taylor’s case in 2016 finding evidence that would later be backed by the grown victim who came forward at one of his parole hearings in 2019. She said she misidentified Taylor but was positive that her attacker was someone in his family. The two embraced in court after Taylor’s final ruling.
(This story was updated to accurately reflect the most current information.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Exonerated Jacksonville man learns sentence for new arrest
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