Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs, a former death row inmate who was later released, always believed “freedom is a gift you give yourself”, her daughter has told her funeral.
Ms Jacobs (77) died last week in a house fire along with her carer, Kevin Kelly (31), at her isolated cottage in Glenicmurrin in Connemara, Co Galway.
New York-born Ms Jacobs became a world-famous advocate against the death penalty following her release from a Florida prison in 1992. She had been sentenced to death, later commuted to 40 years in jail, for the murder of two prison officers shot in February 1976. Her then-partner Jesse Tafero was executed after being convicted of murder.
In 1998 she met Peter Pringle, who had been wrongly sentenced to death for the murder of two gardaí in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon in 1980. His death sentence was commuted and he was released from prison in 1995 having served 16 years for murders he did not commit.
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The couple were married in 2011, and he died in 2023.
Their daughter Christina told her funeral service by video link on Tuesday that her mother believed everybody had the freedom to free themselves from their past and their present circumstances.
“You can change them by changing how you behave within those circumstances,” she said. “The main thing is that no one can take away the freedom to love another. She truly lived by that. Through every trial and triumph she chose love.”
She said her mother “chose to keep her heart open” and “let the light shine out”.
She described her mother as “our teacher, our protector and our friend”, who demonstrated to others how to live with compassion and courage.
She was a “radiant soul” to everyone who knew her and she cared deeply about her family, animals and those who were wrongly incarcerated.
“Her love was boundless and without conditions. She gave of herself freely, quietly and with so much strength,” said Christina.
The funeral service was held at Shannon Crematorium in Co Clare.
In a written statement read out to the congregation, Christina and her brother Eric said their mother was “our rock, our constant guide in our lives”.
Ms Jacobs never needed to raise her voice to make her point known. She faced her share of challenges in life, but she never let the tragedies in her life define her.
“She lived with purpose, grace and determination, which inspired everybody around her,” they added.
“She once said that everybody gets challenged in life. You can spend your life looking backwards or make the decision to keep going. ‘That’s the choice I made.’
“She was a woman who chose to keep going, who chose love and she gave that love freely to her family, her friends and to anyone who needed a bit of light in their lives.”
Ms Jacobs spent five years in solitary confinement on death row. Her death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1981.
Two years later, she won her appeal against her sentence and was released from prison after 16 years and 233 days. Florida state prosecutors were entitled to seek a retrial, but they instead entered into a special plea bargain for which Ms Jacobs did not admit guilt but admitted the prosecutors had incriminating evidence against her.
She later claimed she agreed to this plea under duress.
