Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs, the American woman who spent 17 years imprisoned for murders she did not commit, has died at 78 in a house fire in County Galway, Ireland. Her caretaker, Kevin Kelly, also perished in the blaze, which broke out early Tuesday, June 3, according to local authorities.
Jacobs’ life was one of profound injustice and resilience. In 1976, she and her partner, Jesse Tafero, were wrongfully convicted in Florida after two police officers were fatally shot. The actual gunman, Walter Rhodes, falsely accused them. Tafero was executed in 1990; Jacobs spent five years on death row before her release in 1992, following a successful appeal.
After regaining her freedom, Jacobs became an international voice against the death penalty, co-founding The Sunny Center Foundation to support exonerees. In 2012, she married Irish exoneree Peter Pringle, who died in 2023.
Her story was told in her memoir Stolen Time and the film The Exonerated.
“I chose healing,” Jacobs once said. “Not to live in bitterness, but to leave a legacy of hope and strength.”
An investigation into the fire is ongoing.
