On Feb. 17, 2010, a three-judge panel ruled Taylor was wrongly convicted of 26-year-old Jacquetta Thomas' murder.
Taylor's exoneration is based partly on a former SBI analyst withholding blood tests that could have cleared him.
He says he now soaks up the little things, like coming and going as he pleases, but the transition from prison hasn't been easy.
"You can't just undo 17 years in one year," Taylor said. "I had to learn how not to go anywhere, I had to learn how not to have any aspiration or hopes or not to want to be, you know a telecom engineer anymore."
He says everything from dealing with his past to technology is tedious.
A year ago, Taylor made his first call from a cell phone and read his own headline from the phone's web browser.
Since then, he's gotten to know his daughter, son-in-law and grandson and has bonded with Jacquetta Thomas' grieving loved ones.
"We all want the same thing you know, we all want to see whoever committed that crime brought to justice," Taylor said.
In the meantime, savoring the taste of freedom has given Taylor conviction to speak for others, by re-telling his story.
"My story obviously illuminates so many ways that things can go wrong," he said. "That's really all that needs to be acknowledged is that people make mistakes and they need to fix them."
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