Post by CCADP on Aug 13, 2005 10:58:53 GMT -5
U.S. death row survivor relives her struggle
Wed Aug 10, 2005 10:38 AM BST
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By Paul Majendie
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Sunny Jacobs spent 17 years on death row for a murder she never committed. Her innocent partner was sent to the electric chair.
Now, the New Yorker is reliving the nightmare on stage in "The Exonerated", an indictment of the death penalty that became an instant hit at the Edinburgh Fringe.
"My life is my monument," she said, tears streaming down her face as the audience gave her a standing ovation at the world's largest arts festival.
Refusing to surrender to bitterness, the 57-year-old grandmother told Reuters afterwards: "I am actually driven by a huge feeling of gratitude that I am here at all.
"Just because you are innocent and just because you are right, it doesn't mean you are going to prevail."
Her monologue is one of six Death Row stories told in the award-winning play.
Jacobs, who has been portrayed in the play by actresses Susan Sarandon, Mia Farrow and Jill Clayburgh among others, came to Edinburgh to play herself alongside five actors.
"If it makes one person think again about the death penalty, it is worth it," she said.
The diminutive, bespectacled American, her voice cracking with emotion, recounts how her life was changed forever, and very nearly forfeited.
She and her partner Jesse Tafero were convicted in 1976 for the fatal shooting of two Florida police officers. The death sentences were based on the false testimony of a friend who actually committed the murder and, years later, confessed.
The couple wrote to each other every day for almost 14 years. They each got hold of a Japanese dictionary so they could write messages of love that could not be understood by prison officers reading their mail.
The real killer's confession could not save Tafero who suffered one of the grisliest executions ever carried out in the United States.
The electric chair malfunctioned, the executioner had to pull the switch three times and he finally died 13 and a half minutes after the first attempt.
Jacobs is enraged by what she sees as man's inhumanity to man. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and we all end up blind and toothless," she said.
Executions, to her, will always be barbarous.
"They say they are going to send 2,200 volts of electricity through your body until you are dead, and then they ask if you have anything to say."
Five years after she was released, Jacobs was in a car accident that caused spinal injuries and a life of permanent pain. She had to be helped on and off the stage in Edinburgh.
Through the anti-death penalty movement Jacobs met Irishman Peter Pringle, her 66-year-old partner who had been tried, convicted and sentenced to death for killing a policeman in Ireland but, like her, was finally exonerated.
"My meeting Peter was a gift from the universe. I honour that gift every day."
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Wed Aug 10, 2005 10:38 AM BST
Printer Friendly | Email Article | RSS
By Paul Majendie
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Sunny Jacobs spent 17 years on death row for a murder she never committed. Her innocent partner was sent to the electric chair.
Now, the New Yorker is reliving the nightmare on stage in "The Exonerated", an indictment of the death penalty that became an instant hit at the Edinburgh Fringe.
"My life is my monument," she said, tears streaming down her face as the audience gave her a standing ovation at the world's largest arts festival.
Refusing to surrender to bitterness, the 57-year-old grandmother told Reuters afterwards: "I am actually driven by a huge feeling of gratitude that I am here at all.
"Just because you are innocent and just because you are right, it doesn't mean you are going to prevail."
Her monologue is one of six Death Row stories told in the award-winning play.
Jacobs, who has been portrayed in the play by actresses Susan Sarandon, Mia Farrow and Jill Clayburgh among others, came to Edinburgh to play herself alongside five actors.
"If it makes one person think again about the death penalty, it is worth it," she said.
The diminutive, bespectacled American, her voice cracking with emotion, recounts how her life was changed forever, and very nearly forfeited.
She and her partner Jesse Tafero were convicted in 1976 for the fatal shooting of two Florida police officers. The death sentences were based on the false testimony of a friend who actually committed the murder and, years later, confessed.
The couple wrote to each other every day for almost 14 years. They each got hold of a Japanese dictionary so they could write messages of love that could not be understood by prison officers reading their mail.
The real killer's confession could not save Tafero who suffered one of the grisliest executions ever carried out in the United States.
The electric chair malfunctioned, the executioner had to pull the switch three times and he finally died 13 and a half minutes after the first attempt.
Jacobs is enraged by what she sees as man's inhumanity to man. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and we all end up blind and toothless," she said.
Executions, to her, will always be barbarous.
"They say they are going to send 2,200 volts of electricity through your body until you are dead, and then they ask if you have anything to say."
Five years after she was released, Jacobs was in a car accident that caused spinal injuries and a life of permanent pain. She had to be helped on and off the stage in Edinburgh.
Through the anti-death penalty movement Jacobs met Irishman Peter Pringle, her 66-year-old partner who had been tried, convicted and sentenced to death for killing a policeman in Ireland but, like her, was finally exonerated.
"My meeting Peter was a gift from the universe. I honour that gift every day."
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
