Tributes paid to 'remarkable' US death row exoneree killed in Galway house fire
TRIBUTES ARE BEING paid to exonerated former US death row inmate Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs after her death in a house fire in Galway yesterday aged 78.
Jacobs' remains were found in a bungalow near Casla in Gleann Mhic Muireann in Connemara after emergency services were first alerted to the fire at 6:19am yesterday morning.
Her carer, a man in his 30s called Kevin Kelly, was also found dead in the property.
Friends and colleagues have been paying tribute to the 'fierce advocate for justice' in the wake of the tragic incident.
Dr Edward Mathews, director of the Irish Innocence Project at Griffith College, said: 'She was a life long campaigner for human rights and the abolition of the death penalty, speaking all over the world of how the death penalty invariably kills the innocent and debases the whole of humanity.'
'Despite all, Sunny smiled. Oh, how she smiled,' said friend Ruairí McKiernan.
The Sunny Center
The Sunny Center
Sunny was placed on death row at the age of 28, along with her partner Jesse Tafero, after they were wrongfully convicted of the murders of two police officers.
In Florida in 1976, she was in a car with Jesse and her two children, aged 9 years and 10 months, when she became caught up in a fatal shooting incident at a rest stop, which turned out to have been committed by Walter Rhodes, a passenger in the back seat, who later confessed to the murders.
When she was freed in 1992, her son Eric had become a married father while her daughter Christina was 16 years old.
Jesse was executed by the electric chair while Jacobs was in confinement, and her parents – who had been caring for her children – died together in a plane crash.
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After her release, she campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty, and set up the Sunny Healing Centre with her husband Peter Pringle where they offered a space for healing and respite to individuals who suffered trauma due to miscarriages of justice.
The couple met after he attended a talk she gave about her experiences. He had also been sentenced to death before being exonerated.
'Fierce advocate for justice'
The Sunny Healing Centre paid an emotional tribute to the woman who spent 17 years in prison for a crime she did not commit.
'By now, many of you have heard the news about Sunny. For those who have not, it is with great sorrow that I report that Sunny has passed,' the centre wrote in a message on its website.
'Sunny was a fierce advocate for justice and a guiding light for many. As someone who survived wrongful conviction – including five years in solitary confinement under a sentence of death, and 17 years of imprisonment total – she knew the difficulties of incarceration and the struggle to regain one' s footing after being exonerated and released.'
Jacobs and Peter established The Sunny Center to help others like them to rebuild their lives after release from prison.
'Together, they brought many exonerees to the center in Ireland to help them process their trauma and move forward to the next steps of their healing. During and after the pandemic, they continued to support and counsel exonerees remotely by video and phone.
'After Peter's passing in 2022, Sunny continued the work of The Sunny Center. She hosted exonerees and started a training program for those who wanted to carry forward her vision to establish similar centers for exonerees within their communities.'
'Remarkable woman'
Ruairí McKiernan, a friend of Jacobs, posted a tribute to her, saying she 'had lessons for the world'.
'Through yoga, meditation, and true Bodhisattva warriorship, this remarkable woman went on to travel the world (in her wheelchair) advocating against the death penalty, including recent talks in Paris and Strasbourg,' McKiernan wrote.
'It's worth highlighting that, right until the end – and with every little means – Sunny… worked tirelessly: daily international phone calls, Zoom meetings, talks, podcasts [and] media and events, including fundraising for the Sunny Foundation in the US.
He added: 'Sunny, we are grateful to have known you. Thank you, Sunny, for shining your tremendous light. Your spirit will live on, strong and true. With love to her children and grandchildren, and to all who knew and loved her.'
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Irish Examiner
4 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Sunny Jacobs' death in Galway fire marks end of life shaped by wrongful conviction and resilience
As Sunny Jacobs sat in her tiny cell on death row waiting to be executed for a crime she insists she did not commit, she decided the only way she could find some peace was to pretend she was a monk in a cave, and not a prisoner in a cell. Every day, she would work on her mind, because that was all she had left that belonged to her. As a young mother of two, Sunny spent 17 years in prison and five in solidarity confinement on death row in the US before she was released — in 1992 — at the age of 45. In 1976, she had been accused of murdering two police officers who approached a car she was in with her partner, Jesse Tafero, her two young children, and an acquaintance, Walter Rhodes, who had broken parole conditions. As they approached the car, the police officers were fatally gunned down. Rhodes blamed the murders on Sunny and Jesse — who were tried and sentenced to death. Jesse Joseph Tafero was put to death in 1990 — a malfunctioning electric chair meant it took several attempts and 13 minutes to kill him. Flames reportedly shot out of his head during the horrifying execution. 'I still grieve for him' Sunny said in her soft American accent when we first met in 2008. 'It was so awful, really, all I could do was try to survive. I can't imagine it, I try not to.' Her parents, who were caring for her children Christina and Eric while she was in prison, were killed in a plane crash — Christina went into foster care and Eric, a teenager, learned to support himself. Sunny Jacobs had experienced the worst type of hell on earth. After she had found peace and tranquillity in the west of Ireland years later, where she lived in an idyllic community in Casla, Co Galway, with people who adored her, she expected to live out her life in peace. But sadly, that was not to be. Early last Tuesday, Sunny, who was 78, died along with her carer, Kevin Kelly, as a blaze ripped through her cottage. It was a tragic end to a remarkable life that was documented in books, a play, and a film, The Exonerated. All week, tributes have poured in for the woman who beat all the odds and had survived nearly two decades behind bars. Her RIP notice said 'We share the tragic news of Dr Sunny Jacob's tragic death at her home in Casla, Connemara, Co Galway on June 03, 2025. 'Sunny, a beloved member of the community as well as the wider international community where she was well-known for her humanitarian work and as an activist supporting and giving a voice to others. 'She is a huge loss, and will be heartbreakingly missed by her daughter Christina, son Eric, and grandchildren, Claudia, Jesse, and Bella. She was loved and will be missed by many, many close friends and family. Proceeded in death by her spouse Jesse Tafero, and her late husband and activist, Peter Pringle.' The first time Sunny Jacobs told me her story was in 2008 when I worked on a late-night talk show. She recalled how after Jessie's horrific execution, Walter Rhodes confessed he had fired the fatal shots, 'He confirmed what Jesse and I had said all that time, but it was too late for him, and I had lost so much, my children were not with me, my parents killed so horribly,' she said. What was I to do? I had nothing left, it was beyond traumatic, shocking, the worst, yes the worst, but the only thing the authorities didn't take was my mind. 'I had some control over my mind, but I had to learn to work with my mind and that is where I learned meditation, yoga, mindfulness and how important it was. 'It kept me alive, it really did, so I began working on my mental state, I pretended I was a monk praying in a cave and not a prisoner in a cell. All those dark days when you are alone in that cell, with no window and no light, you have your mind, you either lose your mind or use it to its full potential." By deciding she was not going to be a prisoner, Sunny believed she gave herself some hope. 'Outside of my cell and the prison, death row, the world, the death of those police officers, the death of Jesse, my parents' deaths, my kids being left without parents, that was the nightmare. 'I would allow myself to be really really angry for a few minutes, and then I began to believe I was a monk. I was in a cave and not a cell, I was not a prisoner, instead I was a monk. 'I'm not particularly religious, I just wanted to find peace and somehow this drove me to peace and my own mind saved me from hell. 'I know what happened was awful but why think about it now?' she said years later. 'I came here to Ireland to find peace and I did get peace. I am surrounded by a lovely community'. For years afterwards, Sunny and I spoke to each other on email and the phone. Every so often, she would pop up on chat, when online chat first went live. She would say things like: 'Hey again, this is like meeting on street corners, I'll talk to you real soon." She told me about that awful night in the US, and although she did not witness the events from inside the van where she was sleeping with her children, she has always said Walter Rhodes murdered the police officers. Having fled the scene in the police car, they were captured at a roadblock and arrested. Sunny Jacobs with her late partner Peter Pringle, who spent 14 years in prison for the murder of two gardaí, before being exonerated. Sunny Jacobs and Jesse Tafero were sentenced to death, while Rhodes was given three life sentences, despite being the only one to have tested positive for traces of gunpowder. Sunny, when freed, went on to live in Galway with her partner Peter Pringle, who led a parallel life to hers, having been wrongly imprisoned himself for 15 years. 'I think the universe brought us together as a gift because both of us had chosen the path of peace and healing, rather than revenge or retribution' she said. That path included forgiving those responsible for what happened to her, but she said it was not a selfless act. 'For me, forgiveness is a selfish act that I do for myself so that I don't have to live with hatred in my heart and I can fill those places with joy and love and happiness instead and it's just as simple as that.' Her ability to forgive always astounded me because she suffered so much in her life. I told her I would understand if she hated the world. But, "I never did", she said. My kids suffered of course, they lost their father and me. I was not dead, but they knew what happened to their dad, they would always find out. 'Christina went into foster care, and she believed we were guilty of those crimes. My son Eric had to make his own way in life' By the time Sunny was released from prison in 1992, her children were adults, her son was a dad, and she had to learn to live a new way. 'I was not the young mother anymore with my two tiny children' she said. 'I was in my 40s, and they were all grown up.' She met her future husband Peter Pringle through Amnesty International in Galway after her release. He had also been on death row in Ireland for the murder of gardaí John Morley and Henry Byrne in July 1980. He had spent 14 years in jail before being released, saying he had been exonerated and later wrote a book claiming he had been framed. They set up the Sunny Centre together and worked in mediation and trauma healing. Peter died on New Year's Eve at home in Glenicmurrin in 2023. Despite all the horrors in her life, Sunny found peace in Galway. She had an incredible emotional intelligence and an ability to see outside the trauma and terror — working on her mind so she could find contentment. 'When I realised they could not take my mind in prison, I was able to see a future, and moving here to Galway I found that future, and I found my peace.' Read More Garda Commissioner confirms review into Tina Satchwell case amid scrutiny of 2017 house search
The Irish Sun
6 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Inside Sunny Jacobs' hellish 17 years on US death row for crime she didn't commit before tragic Irish house fire death
AFTER enduring a hellish 17 years on death row in a Florida prison awaiting execution for a crime she did not commit, Sunny Jacobs found peace in the west of Ireland. But, in a tragic twist, Sonia, alongside her carer Kevin Kelly, sadly perished in a house 5 Sunny was wrongfully convivcted of murdering a cop Credit: Getty 5 Irishman Pringle and Sunny met in New York Credit: Getty The 78-year-old had moved to Ireland a number of years ago with her Irish husband, Peter Pringle, who had also been condemned to death before his conviction was quashed. But Jacobs hailed from across the pond in She spent 17 years of her life on death row in a Sunny, who was 28 at the time, was travelling to Read more in Irish news Her When the couple ran into A shooting incident broke out at the Interstate 95 rest stop where they had stopped, resulting in the deaths of a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and a Canadian Jacobs and Tafero were tried for murder and convicted, with both sentenced to death row. Most read in Irish News Tafero was executed in 1990, but a malfunctioning electric chair meant it took several attempts and 13 minutes to kill him. Jacobs remained in a tiny solitary confinement cell during her time on death row. COPING MECHANISM It was there that the mother-of-two discovered her love of yoga and used it as a coping mechanism. Walter Rhodes, who had been in the back seat of the car, had received a life sentence for testifying against Jacobs and Tafero. He later confessed to the murder although he retracted the admission. Jacobs, meanwhile, was granted a new trial in 1992 after an appeals HOPEFUL LEGACY She entered into what is known as the Alford Plea on two counts of second degree murder. Both Sunny's parents died in a plane crash while she was incarcerated and her daughter Christina was put into foster care. Her son, Eric, who was aged in mid-teens at the time, supported himself with a part time food delivery job while his mum was behind bars. And when Sunny was released from prison in 1992, both her children had grown up. 'CHOICE TO HEAL' On her exoneration, Jacobs became a leading advocate against the death penalty and teamed up with Amnesty International to campaign against it. She lived in Los Angeles for a time and taught yoga, having solidified her love for the And she vowed not to become bitter, opting instead to leave her children with a legacy of hope. In 2006, she said: "It was very important, that choice I made to heal, rather than to spend the gift of a new life that I had looking backwards at the wrongs that were done to me." MEETING PARTNER In 1998, she met Peter Pringle at an Amnesty International Event which called for the sentence to be abolished. Pringle himself had been sentenced to death in Ireland for the murder of gardai John Morley and Henry Byrne during a He was acquitted in 1995 and the pair married in 2012, moving to Connemara in the same year. Jacobs once told The Irish Times : "The stone in the west of Ireland makes me feel grounded; it anchors me.' 'GONE TO BE WITH HER PETER' In 2008, Jacobs published her book, Stolen Time, about her life in prison, which went on the become a bestseller. In 2023, Pringle passed away. Jacobs remained in Connemara until her death just days ago, after which she was remembered as a "hero". One person said: 'Sitting here numb and sad, Sunny Jacobs has gone to be with her Peter Pringle in the afterlife. "What a sad sad day. Until we meet again, One Love Sunny.' And another added: "I am sad to share news of the passing of my dear friend, a true hero and a champion for Justice, Sunny Jacobs.' 5 Sunny and Peter Pringle were married in 2012 Credit: Getty 5 She spent 17 years in prison in Florida Credit: AFP 5 Sunny was killed in a house fire just days ago Credit: gettyimages
Irish Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Death row survivor alerted emergency services to fire that killed her, says pal
Florida death row survivor Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs - who died in a house fire along with her carer - was the one who alerted emergency services to the fire but they were both overcome by smoke, her pal has revealed. 'Sunny' (76) and her carer Kevin Kelly, from Galway, died in the house fire which broke out in the bungalow in Gleann Mac Muirinn in Connemara in the early hours of Tuesday morning. 'Sunny', who was originally from New York, and Mr Kelly died after they were overcome by smoke, her pal and founder of Death Penalty Action, Abraham J. Bonowitz has revealed. This comes as an online Gathering for Sunny is being organised in Ireland and America on Sunday, June 8 via Zoom. 'Sunny was aware there was a fire and it was she who called the emergency services,' Mr Bonowitz said on social media. 'Both she and her carer Kevin were overcome by smoke before Kevin could get her out. Neither were burned and I am grateful to know that,' he continued. The online Zoom Gathering will see friends and followers of 'Sunny' light candles, reflect and connect through a short meditation and share some brief words honouring 'Sunny'. 'This will be a simple and gentle gathering in advance of other memorials and celebrations," the organiser stated. Those interested can register at Speaking to The Irish Mirror Mr Bonowitz said 'Sunny was very focused on helping others who also experienced wrongful incarceration. That's why one of the first things I did when I heard she passed away was to donate to her organisation The Sunny Centre. 'We have been friends since we met in 1993. Her passion and life pursuit was to help other survivors of wrongful incarceration and help abolish the death penalty. 'I will miss Sunny deeply. I am grateful for the inspiration provided by her legacy which is love, life and to seek justice for those who have been wronged," said Mr Bonowitz. Gardai and Fire Services were alerted to the fire at around 6.20am on Tuesday. The fire was brought under control by Fire Services and the bodies of Ms Jacobs and Mr Kelly were recovered from inside the house. The scene remained preserved for a technical examination while both bodies were transported to the mortuary at University Hospital Galway for postmortem examinations. 'Sunny' whose husband Peter Pringle, who passed away in 2022 was also a death row survivor and they met in Galway before getting married. Nearly 50 years ago, in 1976, 'Sunny' and her then partner were wrongfully sentenced to death by the Florida courts for the murder of two police men. 'Sunny' was 28 years of age and a mother of two children. In 1993, 17 years later she was exonerated. Her late husband Peter, who died at the age of 84, was also wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for murdering two gardai in a bank raid in Roscommon in 1980. He had served 15 years in jail before he was released in 1995 after his convictions were deemed unsafe and quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal. 'Sunny' and Peter met in Galway after Sunny travelled there to speak at an Amnesty International event in 1998 and they married in 2012. They lived in Connemara where they established The Sunny Centre to help other death row survivors and those who've been wrongfully convicted. Sunny also wrote a book entitled 'Stolen Time' about her story as an innocent woman condemned to death.
