Remembering Sunny Jacobs

 The JWMF is saddened to share the news of the recent death in a house fire of Sunny Jacobs who shared her inspiring story of survival and tragedy with us when she spoke from Ireland  about “Women Sentenced to Death: an Invisible Reality” at our World Day Against The Death Penalty event on 7 October 2021.

Sunny had spent 17 years in prison in the US after her wrongful conviction together with her partner for the murder of 2 police officers in 1976. Her partner died in a botched execution in 1990 while she spent 5 years on death row before her death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Having spent 17 years in prison for a crime of which she was wrongfully convicted, she was released in 1992 after entering a plea which did not admit her guilt.

She subsequently married an Irish death row exoneree and, in 2014, they created the Sunny Centre, a non- profit assisting exonerees with reintegration and readjustment outside prison life.

As observed in a tribute posted by Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, her legacy is felt across the entire abolitionist movement, and will be carried on.