Jesse Tafero

Jesse Tafero
mug shot of Tafero
Born	October 12, 1946(1946-10-12) United States
Died	May 4, 1990(1990-05-04) (aged 43) Raiford, Florida, United States
Conviction(s)	First-degree Murder, armed highway robbery
Penalty	Death by electrocution
Status	Executed
Spouse	Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs

Jesse Joseph Tafero (October 12, 1946 – May 4, 1990), was convicted of murder and executed via electric chair in the state of Florida for the murders of Florida Highway Patrol officer Phillip Black and Donald Irwin, a visiting Canadian constable and friend of Black. There is a large debate about whether or not Tafero was wrongfully convicted of the murder of the two police officers.

The crime, trial, and execution

On the morning of February 20, 1976, Black and Irwin approached a car parked at a rest stop for a routine check. Tafero, his partner Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs, her two children (ages 9 years and 10 months), and Walter Rhodes were found asleep inside. Tafero had previously been in prison and was on probation. Black saw a gun lying on the floor inside the car. He woke the occupants and had first Rhodes then Tafero come out of the car.

According to Rhodes, Tafero then shot both Black and Irwin with the gun, (which was legally registered to Jacobs who bought guns on behalf of Tafero - he couldn't legally apply for a license because of his record) and led the others into the police car and fled the scene. Rhodes later recanted this testimony, and has changed it many times since. Tafero and Jacobs claimed that Rhodes was the lone shooter, and that he subsequently forced them to accompany him in the police vehicle.

They later disposed of the police car and kidnapped a man and stole his car. All three were arrested after being caught in a roadblock. When they were arrested, the gun was found in Tafero's waistband.

Prior to his conviction for murder, Tafero had been convicted of robbery and had served seven years of a 25 year sentence. He was in violation of his parole at the time of the killings. Rhodes was on parole for assault with intent to commit robbery.^{[citation needed]} The prosecution would argue that Tafero and Jacobs had more motive to avoid arrest.

At their trial, Rhodes testified that Tafero and Jacobs were solely responsible for the murders. Tafero and Jacobs were convicted of capital murder and were sentenced to death while Rhodes was sentenced to 3 life sentences. He was released in 1994 following parole for good behavior. The children were placed in the care of Sunny Jacobs's parents until their deaths in a 1982 plane crash. The children were then separated and Sunny's younger child, Christina, was placed into foster care with a friend of Jacobs. Sunny's older child, Eric, who was in his mid teens, first resided with Sonia's brother Alan, then lived on his own, struggling to survive by working at a pizza restaurant and various odd jobs.

Tafero and Jacobs continued their relationship through letters while serving time in the prison. Because there was no death row for women in Florida, Jacobs was put into solitary confinement for the first five years of her imprisonment, let out only once or twice a week for exercise. She learned yoga to pass the time, and after being moved to the general prison population, began teaching yoga to other prisoners.

Because the jury had recommended a life sentence for Jacobs, the court commuted Jacobs's sentence to life in prison, but not Tafero's.

Tafero was to be executed by electrocution. The machine, dubbed "Old Sparky", malfunctioned, causing six-inch flames to shoot out of Tafero's head. A member of the execution team had used a synthetic sponge rather than a sea sponge, which is necessary to provide greater conductivity and a quick death. In all, three jolts of electricity were required to render Tafero dead, a process that took 13 minutes and 30 seconds. Prison inmates later claimed that 'Old Sparky' was 'fixed' and tampered with to make Tafero's execution more like torture. One close inmate friend of Tafero later said he could smell the burning flesh of his friend for days after.

The case became a cause célèbre among death penalty opponents, who cited the brutal circumstances of his execution as reasons it should be abolished.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found reason to overturn the conviction of Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs. She was released after accepting a plea bargain in which she pled nolo contendere (technically an Alford plea of "no contest", but without admitting factual guilt) to all of the charges against her. As Professors Hugo Bedau and Michael Radelet stated in their book In Spite Of Innocence, "If Jacobs was innocent, then the execution of Tafero was probably the execution of an innocent man, because the same evidence (later shown to be insufficient) used to convict Jacobs had also been used to convict Tafero. The information that freed her would have freed him -- if he had not already been executed."

After her release, Jacobs was reunited with her children and became an outspoken opponent of the death penalty. She moved to Ireland, where she now lives with her new partner Peter Pringle (also previously convicted of murder and later exonerated) and continues to teach yoga, offering it also to prison inmates in her new country.^[1] She wrote the 2007 book, "Stolen Time", about the events that changed her life, as well as a forthcoming book about yoga, "If you can breathe, you can do it". Jacobs also campaigns for human rights, working with Amnesty International and other organizations. Tafero and Jacobs's story, and the stories of five other exonerees, was told in a documentary theatre style play called "The Exonerated", which has been performed around the world. She was portrayed in a TV movie version by actress Susan Sarandon, as well as a documentary film created by her childhood friend Micki Dickoff.

Problems with Rhodes's testimony

Prior to his release, Rhodes had admitted several times that he had lied about his involvement in the shooting. In Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs's version of events, she and Tafero had accepted a lift from Rhodes, a casual acquaintance (who was in breach of his parole, although she claims this was not known to the couple), while they were on the run from authorities in North Carolina. Rhodes then carried out the shooting. While Tafero had the gun at the time of his arrest, Rhodes was the only person on which traces of gunpowder were found. He changed his story repeatedly over the years (Cite, St Petersburg Times). Sunny "Sonia" Jacobs has always maintained that she and Tafero were completely innocent of the crime, and that her plea was in response to advice from her lawyer. (Cite. Guardian Monday February 20, 2006).

See also

• List of individuals executed in Florida
• Capital punishment in the United States
• Capital punishment debate

References

1. ^ Irish Independent June 25, 2008

• Hugo Bedau and Michael Radelet. In Spite Of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases. Northeastern. ISBN 1555531970
• List of Florida executions
• List of all prisoners executed in Florida

• Sunny Jacobs. Stolen Time. Doubleday. ISBN 0385611404
• Guardian article about the case
• Irish Independent interview

Persondata
Name	Tafero, Jesse
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 12, 1946
Place of birth	United States
Date of death	May 4, 1990
Place of death	Raiford, Florida, United States