04-06-2025
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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