Credits : Christophe Meireis
The story of Sunny Jacobs
Wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in Florida in 1976, Sunny Jacobs spent 17 years in prison, including 5 years on death row. At the time, she was the only woman on death row in the United States. There was no women’s death row when Sunny Jacobs was convicted, and she was isolated from other prisoners in a maximum security prison, making her imprisonment even more difficult. Her husband, Jesse Tafero, was also wrongly convicted and sentenced to death. Sadly, he was executed in 1990.
Sunny Jacobs was finally released in 1992 and in 1998 met Peter Pringle, who had also been wrongly sentenced to death. Together, they created the Sunny Center Foundation in Ireland, to support and rehabilitate ex-prisoners. Sunny Jacobs shared her story to ECPM :
Strasbourg : Sunny Jacob’s Speech to the Council of Europe
In Strasbourg, Sunny Jacobs took part in a thematic discussion on the death penalty with the Ministers’ Deputies of the Council of Europe. This debate takes place every six months and leads to a series of decisions by the Ministers’ Deputies.
Sunny Jacobs’ Speech at the Council of Europe. Credits : Hayrullah Kurban
Credits : Hayrullah Kurban
Sunny Jacobs and Maria Santos Païs at the Council of Europe. Credits : Hayrullah Kurban
Sunny Jacobs was joined by : Ms Marta Santos Païs, Commissioner of the International Commission against the Death Penalty (Madrid Commission) ; and Mr. Richard Sédillot, lawyer, defender of death row prisoners around the world and one of the boardmembers of ECPM.
The Meetings of ECPM : A Key Moment for the Association
On Thursday 13, March, ECPM was honoured to host the second edition of the Meetings of ECPM and to welcome Sunny Jacobs for the occasion. She gave her moving testimony to an audience of 30 people. The discussion contined s with questions from the audience : What are the flaws in the US justice system and how does it lead to such injustice ? What challenges and obstacles did Sunny face after her release ?
Paris : School Intervention
Finally, Sunny Jacobs concluded this week full of great discussions and encounters with an intervention at the Lucie and Raymond Aubrac high school in Paris. She shared her testimony with the ECPM Education Team, in front of two classes of 9th graders and a some students from ULIS classes. The discussion lasted longer than expected thanks to the great curiosity of the students and the staunch will of Sunny to educate young people about activism. The students were familiar with the topic, having already participated in an ECPM Education Team intervention on the death penalty.
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