The woman who died in a house fire in Galway this morning has been named as Sonia ‘Sunny’ Jacobs, a death row survivor who was wrongfully incarcerated for 17 years.
Ms Jacobs was the widow of Peter Pringle from Killybegs, a fellow exoneree and the father of former TD Thomas Pringle
The remains of Ms Jacob were discovered in her bungalow near Casla this morning along with a man in his 30s, who is understood to be her carer.
Ms Jacobs, a native of the US, had spent 17 years in prison in Florida, including five on death row, after she was wrongfully convicted of the murder of two police officers. Ms Jacobs was eventually acquitted in 1992 and released from jail.
Her husband of 10 years, Peter Pringle passed away on New Year’s Eve 2022 at his residence in Casla.
Peter Pringle was one of the last people to be sentenced to death in Ireland when he was wrongly convicted of killing two gardaí in a shoot-out in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon in 1980. When his sentence was changed to forty years without remission he set out to prove his innocence. Fifteen years later, after 14 years in prison, he became a free man.
Mr Pringle and Ms Jacobs are remembered as leading human rights activists who dedicated their lives to helping other death row survivors and those who’ve been wrongfully convicted. For 20 years, they travelled between the United States and Europe, giving presentations at universities and other organisations about their experiences with the justice system as well as in support of the abolition of the death penalty. They founded the Sunny Healing Centre in Galway as a place of hope for traumatised former prisoners and any persons affected by wrongful convictions in the judicial system.
