Jesse Tafero

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Jesse Joseph Tafero (born October 12, 1946 — died May 4, 1990), was 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.

[edit] 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 common law wife Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs, their two children (ages 9 years and 10 months), and friend Walter Rhodes were found asleep inside. 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. Then, both Black and Irwin were shot by Rhodes. Rhodes forced the others into the police car and fled the scene. 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.

In order to receive a lesser charge himself, at their trial, Rhodes, who had been the only one to test positive for gunpowder residue consistent with having fired the weapon, testified that Tafero and Jacobs were solely responsible for the murder. Tafero and Jacobs were convicted with capital murder and were sentenced to death while Rhodes was sentenced to a life sentence, from which he was released early for good behavior. The children were placed in the care of Sunny Jacobs' parents until their deaths in a 1982 plane crash. The children were then separated and lived with relatives and family friends.

Tafero and Jacobs continued their relationship through letters while serving time in the prison. They learned some Japanese and that way were able to continue their sex life without bringing the attention of the guards who read their mail.

Circa 1982, Rhodes recanted his previous statement and confessed that it was he, not Jesse Tafero or Sunny Jacobs, that had actually killed Philip Black and Donald Irwin. This and other evidence compelled the court to commute Jacobs' sentence to life in prison, but not Tafero's.

Despite Rhodes' eight-year-old confession bearing complete responsibility for the deaths of Black and Irwin, neither the courts nor governor Robert Martinez intervened. Jesse Tafero was electrocuted. However, the machine, dubbed "Old Sparky", malfunctioned, causing six-inch flames to shoot out of Tafero's head. In all, three jolts of electricity were required to render Tafero dead, a process that took 13.5 minutes.

Arguably, the Jesse Tafero case became the cause célèbre among death penalty opponents, who cited the brutal circumstances of his execution, the fact that there was reasonable doubt about his guilt, and the suppression of Walter Rhodes' confession as reasons it should be abolished.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found evidence compelling enough to overturn the conviction of Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs. She was released after accepting a plea bargain. After her release, Jacobs reaffirmed her innocence. She was reunited with her children and became an outspoken opponent of the death penalty. She remarried and now teaches yoga. Tafero and Jacobs' story, and the stories of five other exonerees, was told in a play called The Exonerated. She was portrayed in a film version by actress Susan Sarandon.