Remembering Death Row Survivor and Advocate Sonia ​“Sunny” Jacobs

Sonia ​“Sunny” Jacobs, a for­mer death row pris­on­er whose sto­ry of wrong­ful con­vic­tion was fea­tured in the off-Broadway play ​“The Exonerated” and who became a promi­nent advo­cate for for­mer­ly incar­cer­at­ed pris­on­ers, died in a house fire, along with her care­giv­er, in County Galway, Ireland, on June 3, 2025.

Ms. Jacobs was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1976 for the mur­ders of two law enforce­ment offi­cers at a Florida rest stop. She and Jesse Tafero, the father of one of her chil­dren, were both sen­tenced to death based large­ly on tes­ti­mo­ny from Walter Rhodes, a co-defen­dant who received a life sen­tence in exchange for his coop­er­a­tion. Ms. Jacobs always main­tained her inno­cence, telling police she had been in the back seat of the car asleep with her chil­dren when the mur­ders occurred. Physical evi­dence, includ­ing gun pow­der residue found on Mr. Rhodes’ hands, con­tra­dict­ed the prosecution’s nar­ra­tive of events and Mr. Rhodes changed his sto­ry mul­ti­ple times through­out the inves­ti­ga­tion and tri­al pro­ceed­ings. Mr. Rhodes was even­tu­al­ly paroled after serv­ing just part of his sen­tence. Ms. Jacobs spent 17 years in prison, includ­ing five on death row. Mr. Tafero was exe­cut­ed in 1990 in Florida’s elec­tric chair, in what became an infa­mous­ly botched exe­cu­tion.

In 1992, after 17 years of impris­on­ment, Ms. Jacobs was grant­ed a new tri­al. She lat­er agreed to enter an Alford plea to sec­ond-degree mur­der in exchange for being released with time served. The plea allowed Ms. Jacobs to main­tain her inno­cence while acknowl­edg­ing that pros­e­cu­tors had suf­fi­cient evi­dence for a like­ly con­vic­tion. Ms. Jacobs’ plea agree­ment illus­trates a pat­tern among wrong­ful con­vic­tion cas­es where defen­dants accept plea agree­ments rather than full exon­er­a­tions. Legal experts note that such plea deals allow pros­e­cu­tors and state offi­cials to avoid admit­ting error while pro­vid­ing defen­dants with imme­di­ate free­dom, though with­out com­plete restora­tion of their rights.

Following her release, Ms. Jacobs advo­cat­ed against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and for crim­i­nal legal reform more broad­ly. She often spoke pub­licly about her case and the broad­er issues of wrong­ful con­vic­tions, becom­ing a rec­og­nized voice in the move­ment to abol­ish the death penal­ty. In 1998, Ms. Jacobs met Peter Pringle, an Irishman who had also been wrong­ful­ly sen­tenced to death before being exon­er­at­ed in 1995 after 15 years in prison. The cou­ple mar­ried in 2011 and estab­lished the Sunny Center in 2014, an orga­ni­za­tion that sup­ports the wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. Mr. Pringle died in 2023.

Amicus, a legal char­i­ty that helps pro­vide legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion for death row pris­on­ers in the US, worked close­ly with Ms. Jacobs over the years. In a state­ment, Amicus said, ​“Sunny tru­ly believed in the good­ness of every per­son, with for­give­ness and empa­thy at the heart of her own heal­ing. She touched every­one she met with her unbound love and will be deeply missed by all who knew her.”