Stolen Time: One Woman's Inspiring Story as an Innocent Condemned to Death - Sunny Jacobs

Stolen Time by Sunny Jacobs.

~ About Sunny Jacobs ~

Sunny Jacobs now live on the West Coast of Ireland, but is originally from the United States.
She now teaches yoga, campaigns against the death penalty, and has appeared in a play dedicated to this book.
This book is an autobiographical account of her 17-year incarceration having been wrongfully committed to the death sentence and later life in prison ...
...
~ Synopsis of the Book ~

As mentioned, this is an autobiographical account of the murder of two state troopers in Florida in 1972, with Sunny and her partner Jesse Tafero involvement in the incident. It chronicles their subsequent trial, sentencing and the botched execution of Jesse Tafero as well as other incidents that occurred to her during this time.
Most of the book is taken from Sunny's memories, but also from ... more

Stolen Time by Sunny Jacobs.

~ About Sunny Jacobs ~

Sunny Jacobs now live on the West Coast of Ireland, but is originally from the United States.
She now teaches yoga, campaigns against the death penalty, and has appeared in a play dedicated to this book.
This book is an autobiographical account of her 17-year incarceration having been wrongfully committed to the death sentence and later life in prison for the murder of two state troopers in Florida.

~ Synopsis of the Book ~

As mentioned, this is an autobiographical account of the murder of two state troopers in Florida in 1972, with Sunny and her partner Jesse Tafero involvement in the incident. It chronicles their subsequent trial, sentencing and the botched execution of Jesse Tafero as well as other incidents that occurred to her during this time.
Most of the book is taken from Sunny's memories, but also from scraps she wrote while in prison, sometimes using what little paper she had to hand, or if needed other items to record her feelings on.

~ Thoughts on the book ~

One thing I would make clear from the outset after reading this. Sunny Jacobs makes no issue that she and Jesse were at the location of the shooting which caused the two state troopers to lose their lives.
Sunny doesn't hide from the fact that Jesse had been in trouble with the law before, and that he was handling guns illegally.
There is no attempt to say we weren't there. There is no cover up as to their overall involvement and I've no doubt that some kind of crime was committed by their presence.
However, what is so devastating is the crime they committed most certainly doesn't fit the punishment they were given.

I was so intrigued about this after reading, I decided to talk to some of my friends who live in America, as well as a relative who lives in Florida and was there during the time this all took place. I was interested to find they all felt a huge miscarriage of justice had occurred, and basically all were saying that they agreed that Sunny and Jesse had committed some crime, the sentence was completely disproportionate.

We begin the story with Sunny giving details of her early life and how she and Sunny met. As you continue to read, one impression I got was Sunny's personal growth. From the pretty naive hippy, through to the adult who had become in many ways battle hardened, you see this growth in the way she writes, the language she uses and just the general way something is explained or written.
Also, while Sunny refers to being Jesse's wife, the reality is they never were able to make the commitment final. However, for all intents and purpose Sunny talks as if they were legally married.

Sunny and Jesse get caught up in an event that changes their lives. Basically, Sunny and Jesse were with another man and doing a gun deal. While with this man, they were stopped by State Troopers. It was during this, the other man decided to fire and kill the State Troopers who were there. This is where the crux of the whole situation became entangled.

In an attempt to get a conviction, on their arrest, Sunny and Jesse were charged on the testimony of the man who was with them.
One thing Sunny says very early on is the physical evidence of gun shot residue that immediately showed neither she nor Jesse fired the gun. Again, I wasn't sure about taking this on face value and after some checking - this was supported with what I found. The only gun shot residue - in other words the only main physical evidence linking the shooter to the crime - was found on the man who testified against Sunny and Jesse.

And to compound this, Sunny's 9 year old son was with them at the time it had all happened. He was placed into Juvenile detention and grilled at secret hearings without representation, often with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He was kept separated from other children and he remained in this position for 2 months, which was the time it took for Sunny's parents to finally gain custody through the courts.
Remember - He was just 9 years old.

As you read the book, the other thing that struck me was how Sunny coped with her situation. Her balance of personality is astounding - and considering the conditions she was kept in during the first five years - that quite frankly were inhuman - is testament to her.

As mentioned, ultimately the conviction of Sunny and Jesse depended on the testimony of the only person who was linked by the physical evidence, but by doing a deal with the prosecution immediately avoided the death penalty.
Sunny also had another female prisoner testify that Sunny had "confessed" to the crime while held together in remand.

Later, the man who originally testified would retract this on more than one occasion, but then would eventually recant this and say his original testimony was the right one.
The other female prisoner who also testified against Sunny in the original trial also came out later and said she had lied to gain advantages on her sentencing.

Despite all these inconstancies the most remarkable thing is Sunny shows no bitterness, no real anger.

The sentence originally given to Sunny was death. Even worse, there were no facilities to house Sunny - and so she landed up in a solitary confinement cell, so small she would reach out and touch both walls, and it was 6 steps from the toilet to the door. No window with a proper view (although she could just angle herself and catch a glimpse of the outside compound), nor did it have anything other than a metal bunk with thin mattress, and an open toilet.
The death sentence lasted for 5 years, when eventually Sunny's death sentence was commuted to life in prison. Her conditions while still on "death row" did improve a little and she was moved from the solitary confinement block - to a self contained cell on the medical ward!

To be imprisoned like this is almost tragic enough, but there were two other tragic events that were to hit Sunny.

The first was when her parents were both killed in a plane crash. Even more poignantly they were taking their first holiday in years, having not taken one because of Sunny's sentencing, as well as having become custodians of the children (The son, but also a younger daughter). The accident was completely preventable, and later the airline does settle with bereaved families out of court, but the impact it was to have on Sunny and her two children would never be fully compensated.

The next event was the botched execution of Jesse. It's a matter of public record that it took 3 attempts and 13.5 minutes before he died using the electric chair! That flames literally shot up from his head, and smoke came out from his ears. Witnesses to the event were apparently traumatized over this event. It was later found that the wrong kind of foam in the headset was used - artificial instead of natural foam - thereby reducing the current flow.

These two events were the closest Sunny came to losing all hope.

Sunny eventually took a bargain plea to gain her freedom after nearly 17 years in prison. While she and others felt the evidence they had accumulated to gain a retrial was sufficient, because the state couldn't afford to admit liability in their mistakes - this was the one option that allowed her to gain immediate release from prison. Sunny took her freedom over challenging the overall case against her. As she says in her epilogue:
"In 1976 when I went in I was a young mother, a daughter and a wife. When I came out in 1992, I was an orphan, a widow and a grandmother."

I still can't believe how I felt as I read this book.
Rarely have I been so affected by a book as I have been reading this one. I can't remember the last time I unashamedly found myself crying as I read something.
Rarely have I found myself outraged as I've read someone's story.
Rarely have I been as uplifted by someone's spirit as I was with Sunny.

Despite the outrage, anger and tears, ultimately what I came away with from reading this book was feeling buoyed by Sunny's outlook!

Sunny also acknowledges that other victims were part of all this, and shouldn't be forgotten - and that is the state troopers who lost their lives and their families.

~ Final thoughts ~

As I've already said, I think it would be wrong for anyone to say that Sunny and Jesse were completely innocent of wrongdoing. After all, had they not been involved with the firearms, they wouldn't have been with a person who used one to shoot and kill others. But personally having done jury service twice (including a trial that made national news) I know that it has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. There appears to be huge holes of doubt, but emotions at the time were running so high. Does this excuse the issues? Each of us will read this and come up with a different conclusion, but my own, having delved a little further than just the book is that in this instance a man lost his life when he shouldn't have done. A family was ripped apart. And it shouldn't have happened.

I most certainly didn't expect to have been as effected by this story as I was. I have now handed my copy of this book around the family, and so far everyone else has come back and told me how they have been affected by this story.

Apparently a juror from the original trial has meet Sunny since her release and has acknowledged their mistake in it all. I doubt every single juror would say the same thing, nor will every reader, but I would still ask anyone to read this at least with an open mind - before judging someone.

A tale of caution, spirit and tragedy. A full five out of five stars for me.

~ Availability and price ~

I got my paperback copy from our local Asda for £3-49. It seems to be
widely available from other outlets (inc. Online) and price varies from £3-49 up to £5-99.

Also my review on DooYoo. 

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