Homeless Man Sentenced 25 Years to Life for Stealing Food Released From Prison Today

From left, Stanford law school students Gabriel Martinez and Reiko Rogozen listen with Gregory Taylor as he wipes away tears during a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court Monday, Aug. 16, 2010. A judge on Monday ordered the release of Taylor, a man serving a potential life sentence for stealing food from a Los Angeles church. (AP Photo/Anne Cusack, Pool)

Gregory Taylor has served 13 years of his 25-to-life sentence for "trying to break in to a church kitchen to find something to eat," and today he is a free man, according to an AP report published on the Huffington Post.

Taylor became a prime example of California's three-strikes law perhaps at its least effective; though the now 47-year-old was at the time homeless and struggling with addiction, his prior convictions were from the prior decade, one for "stealing a purse containing $10 and another time for trying to rob a man on the street. He didn't use a weapon in either case, and no one was injured." He was arrested in 1997 for trying to break into a L.A. church kitchen to get food.

While incarcerated, Taylor completed his GED, and has plans to live in Pomona and work with his younger brother who runs a food pantry there. His release is the result of an appeal filed earlier this year through Stanford Law School's Three-Strikes Project, which seeks the early release of those convicted of non-violent crimes.