BREVARD COUNTY, Fla.,None — A Brevard County woman has served only two years of an 11-year prison sentence for hitting and killing a man while she was drunk, but Mary Taylor Christensen now wants to be released. The Florida Clemency Board can't release anything about her request for clemency until Friday, so her reasoning for the request is still a mystery.
After the hit and run five years ago, Taylor-Christensen was followed and arrested. Now she's looking for a get-out-of jail card.
Taylor-Christensen was 64 years old when she was sentenced to 11 years in prison. She told the court then she wished she was the one who died in the car crash. Now she just wants out of prison.
"It's quick. It's quick. She's only been in prison for two years," state attorney Norm Wolfinger told WFTV.
Wolfinger said his office was just notified of her clemency application and hasn't been given any specific reason for it, but he believes she should serve her original sentence.
"This man was in his forties and two years doesn't seem like the right price to pay," he said.
Taylor-Christensen killed Thomas Bowen while he was changing a tire on a boat trailer along Interstate 95 in 2005. Her blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit. Taylor-Christensen, the ex-wife of the Thrifty Nickel newspaper publisher, claimed she didn't remember anything until she was trapped by a Good Samaritan and arrested.
Inmates are eligible for clemency after serving two years. The governor or members of the board must put the inmate on the hearing agenda. Who pushed for Taylor-Christensen's case has not been released by the state yet.
WFTV checked campaign records and couldn't find any significant contributions under her name or her ex-husband. Thomas Bowen's wife, Jo, told WFTV by email her family plans to attend the clemency hearing and oppose any early release.
Taylor-Christensen is one of about 80 clemency applications that will go before the board next week, including a very high-profile posthumous pardon for Doors singer Jim Morrison.
WFTV
