Latest news with #TheExonerated
Boston Globe
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Sunny Jacobs, a celebrity after freed from death row, dies at 77
Advertisement Her boyfriend at the time, Jesse Tafero, a petty criminal who had been convicted of attempted rape, was also convicted of murder. He was executed by electric chair in Florida in a notoriously botched procedure in May 1990. It took seven minutes and three jolts, and his head caught on fire. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Ms. Jacobs, whose death sentence was overturned in 1982, was ultimately freed a decade later, when a federal appeals court found that prosecutors had improperly withheld evidence from the defense. She took a plea deal rather than face retrial and was never legally exonerated. It was this story that formed the basis of Ms. Jacobs's subsequent, celebrated tale -- that she had been an innocent, a '28-year-old vegetarian hippie,' as she told The New York Times in a 2011 Vows article about her marriage to a fellow former inmate, Irishman Peter Pringle, who died in 2023. Advertisement A product of a prosperous Long Island family, Ms. Jacobs said she had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, as had Tafero, when the killings took place. Responsibility for them, she said, lay with another passenger in the car, Walter Rhodes, who had also been convicted of petty crimes and who later confessed to the killings of the two officers (though he subsequently recanted, confessed and recanted again, multiple times). Ms. Jacobs's 9-year-old son, Eric, and a baby daughter were also in the car, and they were left motherless by what she claimed was her unjust incarceration. Her story was retold in theater and on film. Off-Broadway, Mia Farrow, Jill Clayburgh, Lynn Redgrave, Stockard Channing, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields, and others have all portrayed her in 'The Exonerated,' a 2000 play by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. It became a Court TV movie in 2005 starring Sarandon. Ms. Jacobs's story was also the basis of an earlier TV movie, 'In the Blink of an Eye' (1996). Barbara Walters once devoted a sympathetic segment to Jacobs on the ABC News program '20/20.' And Shields, along with actresses Marlo Thomas and Amy Irving, attended Ms. Jacobs's wedding to Pringle, in New York, at which Shields wept and said: 'Despite everything they have been through, they are not bitter or jaded. They never closed their hearts.' But the story was more complicated than the one that Ms. Jacobs fashioned over the years, and that was swallowed uncritically by media outlets and by the worlds of stage and screen. A young former reporter, Ellen McGarrahan, who had witnessed Tafero's execution for The Miami Herald and was haunted by it, spent much of the next 30 years digging into what had actually happened that day at the rest stop. She published her findings in a well-received 2021 book, 'Two Truths and a Lie.' Advertisement McGarrahan's meticulous, incisive research -- she left journalism to become a professional private investigator after witnessing the execution -- contradicts Ms. Jacobs's story on almost every point. Ms. Jacobs, Tafero, and Rhodes existed in a murky underworld of violence, drug dealing, gun infatuation, and petty crime, McGarrahan said she found. By the time of the fatal encounter with the Florida state trooper Phillip Black and his visiting friend, Canadian constable Donald Irwin, Ms. Jacobs's charge sheet was already long: arrests for prostitution, forgery, illegal gun possession, contributing to the delinquency of a minor (her then-4-year-old son, Eric), and drug dealing. After the killings, a loaded handgun was found in her purse. Several weapons -- two 9-mm semiautomatic handguns, a .38-caliber Special revolver, a .22-caliber Derringer, a .32-caliber revolver -- were found in the various cars linked to Tafero and Rhodes, McGarrahan wrote. Two eyewitnesses, truckers who were at the scene of the killings, said in court testimony that Rhodes couldn't have been the shooter because they saw that his hands were in the air. Forensic evidence suggested that a Taser shot, setting off the volley of fatal gunfire between the two parties, came from the back of the car, where Ms. Jacobs was sitting with her children. McGarrahan posits that Ms. Jacobs may have at least fired the Taser, which she had purchased months earlier. 'The state's theory was that Sunny fired the Taser and the gun at Trooper Black while he was attempting to subdue Jesse,' McGarrahan wrote, and that 'Jesse grabbed the gun from Sunny and continued firing at both Trooper Black and Constable Irwin.' Advertisement According to a Florida Supreme Court opinion in the case, as Ms. Jacobs was being led away after her arrest, a state trooper asked her, 'Do you like shooting troopers?' Ms. Jacobs was reported to have responded, 'We had to.' When McGarrahan went to find Ms. Jacobs at her home in Ireland many years later, 'a small, plump, wrinkled, gray-haired woman in an oversized green sweater, sweatpants, and wire-rimmed glasses' appeared in the doorway. Ms. Jacobs was wary, and mute on the subject of the Taser. When McGarrahan told her that she was simply seeking to establish the truth about the case, Ms. Jacobs responded: 'I don't think you can know that. I don't think that's knowable.' Sonia Jacobs -- who was also known as Sonia Leigh Linder, Sonia Lee Jacobs, and Sonia Lee Jacobs Linder, according to McGarrahan -- was born on Aug. 24, 1947, in the Far Rockaway neighborhood of Queens. Her parents, Herbert and Bella Jacobs, owned a textile firm. Sunny, as she was known, grew up in Elmont on Long Island. She dropped out of college in 1965 and got married, with a wedding reception at the Tavern on the Green restaurant in Manhattan, McGarrahan wrote. By 1968 -- the state of her marriage at that point is unclear -- she was living with her young son in Miami in a house owned by her parents. Her life, before and after meeting Tafero, was 'drugs, drugs and more drugs,' one informant told McGarrahan. Advertisement In 1982, after the Florida Supreme Court had overturned Ms. Jacobs's death sentence and commuted it to life in prison, her parents were killed that year in a Pan Am plane crash in New Orleans. When she was released 10 years later -- the US Court of Appeals ordered that she be given a new trial, but prosecutors offered a plea deal instead -- Ms. Jacobs had already been the subject of the '20/20' segment. In the years that followed, she taught yoga and became increasingly sought after as a speaker for her views opposing the death penalty. She moved to Ireland sometime in the 2000s. In 2007, she published her autobiography, 'Stolen Time: One Woman's Inspiring Story as an Innocent Condemned to Death.' Facebook messages to her children, Eric Linder and ChrisTina Pafero, were not immediately answered. McGarrahan, reflecting on the saga that she had spent so many years uncovering, said in an interview that with Ms. Jacobs, 'the myth has become the truth.' 'She made herself into the victim,' McGarrahan added. 'It removes the actual victims.' This article originally appeared in
Irish Examiner
07-06-2025
- 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
Daily Mirror
04-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Death row survivor wrongfully imprisoned for 17 years dies in horror house fire
A survivor of Florida's death row has tragically died in a house fire - Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs, who was wrongfully jailed for 17 years, died in a fire in Galway earlier this week A death row survivor who spent 17 years behind bars for a crime she didn't commit has tragically died in a house fire. Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs was killed in Galway in the Republic of Ireland earlier this week, along with a man in his 30s understood to be her carer. They were both pronounced dead at the scene of the fatal fire at a bungalow at Gleann Mac Muireann near Casla in Connemara on Tuesday morning. The two are understood to have been the only people in the house at the time of the blaze. Police and Fire Services were alerted to the fire at around 6:20am on Tuesday and brought it under control. The bodies of Ms Jacobs and the man in his 30s were recovered from inside the property. Sunny spent nearly two decades on Florida's death row after she and her then partner were wrongfully sentenced to death by the Florida courts for the murder of two police men. A mother of two, Sunny spent 17 years behind bars for a crime she did not commit. Her passing was confirmed by the founder of Death Penalty Action in America Abraham J. Bonowitz. He told The Irish Mirror that he met Sunny a few months after she was freed following 17 years of wrongful incarceration in The Sunshine State. "I first met Sunny in 1993, just months after she was freed from 17 years of wrongful incarceration in Florida, including five years as the only woman on Florida's death row, after evidence of her innocence vacated her conviction,' Mr Bonowitz said in the statement. 'In the wake of injustice, Sunny used the remainder of her life to work to keep others from enduring wrongful incarceration, to help those freed from wrongful incarceration to heal, and to work to abolish the death penalty in the United States and worldwide.' He continued: "It was a great privilege to know Sunny, not only in the work that we shared, but as a true friend. One of my greatest honours was to be the person to drive her to visit the memorial to the victims of Flight 759, which crashed near the airport in New Orleans in 1982. We were together at the 2024 Annual Conference of The Innocence Network in New Orleans. It was the first time she was able to visit the site where her parents of blessed memory, Bella and Herbert Jacobs, died. Even in her old age, Sunny was constantly working to help others.' Sunny's late husband was Irish death row survivor Peter Pringle. They set up 'The Sunny Centre' to support people who had been victims of wrongful incarceration. The story of Sunny's plight was also told in books, plays and film, with her being played by Susan Sarandon in the TV film 'The Exonerated' in 2005. Director Micki Dickoff also put her career on hold for the 1996 film 'In the Blink of an Eye', with Mimi Rogers portraying Sunny. The film also told the story of her husband Jesse Tafero. Tafero died in 1990 during a brutal botched execution by electric chair that saw flames shoot out of his head. Mr Bonowitz added: 'Our last conversations were about how we can better assist such individuals in their latter years - particularly those who, like Sunny, received no compensation or even an official acknowledgement of their innocence.' He continued: 'My heart and prayers go out to her daughter, Christina, her son, Eric, to all who knew her personally, all who had the chance to hear her speak or know her story, and all who have been inspired by the example she set in how she lived and used her life to help others.'
Irish Daily Mirror
03-06-2025
- General
- Irish Daily Mirror
Tributes flow for death row survivor 'Sunny' Jacobs who died in Galway housefire
The founder of Death Penalty Action in America has paid tribute to Florida death row survivor Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs who tragically lost her life in a house fire in Galway. American-born 'Sunny', (76) and a man in his 30s, understood to be her carer, were pronounced dead at the scene of the fatal fire at a bungalow at Gleann Mac Muireann near Casla in Connamera on Tuesday morning. It is understood the deceased were the only occupants of the house at the time the blaze broke out. Gardai and Fire Services were alerted to the fire at around 6.20am on Tuesday and brought it under control. The bodies of Ms Jacobs and the man in his 30s were recovered from inside the property. 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 only 28 years of age and the mother of two young children. She was freed after 17 years of wrongful incarceration in 1993. Now, in a statement issued to The Irish Mirror by Abraham J. Bonowitz, a founder of Death Penalty Action in the USA, said he first met 'Sunny' in 1993 - just months after she was freed from 17 years of wrongful incarceration in Florida. "I first met Sunny in 1993, just months after she was freed from 17 years of wrongful incarceration in Florida, including five years as the only woman on Florida's death row, after evidence of her innocence vacated her conviction,' Mr Bonowitz said in the statement. 'In the wake of injustice, Sunny used the remainder of her life to work to keep others from enduring wrongful incarceration, to help those freed from wrongful incarceration to heal, and to work to abolish the death penalty in the United States and worldwide. "It was a great privilege to know Sunny, not only in the work that we shared, but as a true friend. 'One of my greatest honours was to be the person to drive her to visit the memorial to the victims of Flight 759, which crashed near the airport in New Orleans in 1982. We were together at the 2024 Annual Conference of The Innocence Network in New Orleans. It was the first time she was able to visit the site where her parents of blessed memory, Bella and Herbert Jacobs, died. "Even in her old age, Sunny was constantly working to help others. 'She and her late husband, Irish death row survivor Peter Pringle established 'The Sunny Centre,' an organisation focused on supporting the needs of people freed from wrongful incarceration. 'Our last conversations were about how we can better assist such individuals in their latter years - particularly those who, like Sunny, received no compensation or even an official acknowledgement of their innocence." 'Books, films and stage plays have amplified the voice of Sunny Jacobs, who was a featured character in the play and movie, The Exonerated, originally produced by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. She was portrayed by Susan Sarandon, among many others. 'Sunny's story was first told in film when she was portrayed by Mimi Rogers in the film 'In the Blink of an Eye' directed by her childhood friend, Micki Dickoff, who put her career on hold to help prove Sunny's innocence and also that of her husband, Jesse Tafero. 'Sadly, Tafero's execution was famously botched in 1990 in Florida's electric chair. Sunny's book, Stolen Time: One Woman's Inspiring Story as an Innocent Condemned to Death. "Much more will be written and said about Sunny Jacobs. I have donated in her memory to 'The Sunny Centre' and I invite others to join me. 'My heart and prayers go out to her daughter, Christina, her son, Eric, to all who knew her personally, all who had the chance to hear her speak or know her story, and all who have been inspired by the example she set in how she lived and used her life to help others,' said Mr Bonowitz.
