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Oct 2, 2017 · At least 50 killed, 200 injured in Las Vegas Strip shooting. At least 58 people were killed and more than 515 injured when a man opened fire from a high-rise hotel on the Las Vegas Strip,...
Jun 27, 2017. Many people find the west of Ireland to be a place of healing and recovery, but none more so than Queens, NY native Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs and Dublin-born Peter Pringle, both...
- 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...
Jan 28, 2017 · That was the heartbreaking reality of a life stolen from Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs, who was imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit.
Oct 26, 2017 · A macabre genealogy stretches from Mme Debeinche to the reproductions of crime-scene photos that proliferate in true-crime documentaries and dramas today.
Oct 26, 2000 · Sonia Jacobs felt like a middle-aged "alien" when she walked out of prison 16 years after her wrongful conviction.
Oct 17, 2023 · Indiana police are investigating how gruesome crime scene images of the 2017 Delphi murders were leaked to the public, after numerous were shared via text, email, and social media.
