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Sonia Jacobs at NU Law (Photo: Loren Santow) Jacobs was a 28-year-old 'vegetarian hippie' when she was arrested after a 1976 shootout in which two cops were killed. Her first husband was executed for the crime before a witness recanted.
Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs and Jesse Joseph Tafero, the father of the younger of her two children, were tried separately, convicted, and sentenced to death by the same judge for the 1976 murders of two law enforcement officers at a rest stop off of Interstate 95 in Broward County, Florida.
- The Murder and Kidnaping
- The Convictions and Sentencing
- The Appeals
- Jacobs' Death Sentence Vacated
- Tafero's Macabre Execution
- Case Data
After Black learned via radio that Rhodes had a criminal record, gunfire broke out. Black and Irwin were slain, and the group sped off in the Black's patrol car, driven by Rhodes. At a nearby apartment complex, Rhodes commandeered a car and kidnapped the man in it, Leonard Levinson. They were captured a little later when Rhodes lost control of the ...
The convictions of Jacobs and Tafero rested primarily on the testimony of Rhodes, who was allowed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In Jacobs' case, the prosecution also presented the testimony of a jailhouse informant, Brenda Isham, who claimed Jacobs had confessed. The trials were surroun...
In 1978, the Florida Supreme Court temporarily relinquished jurisdiction of Jacobs' case, directing Futch to hold a hearing on whether the Broward County State Attorney had improperly withheld exculpatory evidence during pretrial discovery, including reports stating that Rhodes had told a prison guard that he alone shot the officers and that he had...
In 1981, the Florida Supreme Court agreed that the discovery issues did not warrant a new trial, affirming Jacobs' conviction. However, the court commuted her sentence to life in prison, holding that Futch had lacked sufficient basis to override the jury's recommendation of a life sentence. Jacobs v. State, 396 So. 2d 713 (1981). Tafero was not so ...
Jacobs' petition for a writ of habeas corpus was still pending when, on May 4, 1990, Tafero was put to death in the Florida electric chair. Officials interrupted the execution three times because flames and smoke shot out of his head. During the first interruption, he continued to move and breathe. Shortly before the execution, filmmaker Micki Dick...
Jurisdiction: Broward County, Florida Date of crime: February 20, 1976 Date of arrest: February 20, 1976 Charge: First-degree murder of two police officers and kidnaping Sentence: Death for the murders, life for the kidnaping Release date: October 9, 1992 Months wrongfully incarcerated: 200 Date of birth: 1947 Age at time of arrest: 28 Defendant ra...
Oct 9, 2020 · Sonia ‘Sunny’ Jacobs was sentenced to death for a crime she did not commit. She spent 17 years in prison and was exonerated in 1992 but this reprieve came too late for her husband who was executed in 1990 by a faulty electric chair.
Mar 7, 2018 · Sunny Jacobs - Shine Your Light. Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs was a young mother of two when she was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death by electric chair. This is how she found the courage to be truly free. Transcript:
Feb 27, 2018 · Exonerees Sunny Jacobs and Cassandra Rivera featured in Innocence Project's 2018 Women's History Month campaign: Bearing the Burden of Love. Photo by Erin G. Wesley.
Oct 26, 2000 · When Jacobs left prison in 1992, her two children were grown and she was a grandmother. She teaches yoga now in California and belongs to an odd sort of alumni club: the falsely convicted.
