Spring Break
'Exonerated' Weaves Tale Of Modern Death Row Injustices
Madeline Ward
Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: Focus
There are currently many individuals on death row; it is not known how many of them are innocent. In the film "The Exonerated," the survivors of wrongful death row convictions are not considered lucky. They are just getting back to a life that was taken from them, often in cases of common mistakes, shoddy evidence and false testimony. In this film, justice has many miscarriages.
Profiled are Kerry Max Cooke, Delbert Tibbs, David Keaton, Gary Gauger, Robert Earl Hayes and Sunny Jacobs, each played by actors such as Danny Glover and Sigourney Weaver who read from the vindicated's interview transcripts. All but Hayes have been freed; Hayes was still being held for an unrelated crime at the time the film was made.
The actors told each story against a black background, with brief cuts to recreations. Gauger is accused of shooting both of his parents and, even after it turned out that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has a tape of the killer confessing, it still took a year for Gauger to be released. Gauger was tricked into testifying based upon a 12-hour interrogation that was called a "voluntary conversation and confession" in court. He was released in 1996.
Jacobs was given the distinction of being the first woman on death row, she said. Jacobs drove to pick up her husband in Florida when his car broke down. One of her husband's friends offered Jacobs and her children a ride home. During that ride the family was pulled over by the police who realized that Jesse Jacobs' friend was actually Walter Rhodes, a man wanted for violating parole. Rhodes refused to go back to prison so he shot both officers and kidnapped the Jacob family. Once Jesse and Sunny Jacobs were taken in for questioning, Rhodes formed a plea deal that said his hostages had committed the crime.
The innocent Jesse Jacobs was put to death, even after Rhodes testified in 1979 that he himself had actually fired the fatal shots. Jacobs' death by electrocution took 13 minutes because of a malfunction that extended his suffering and caused his body to catch fire. Sunny Jacobs was released in 1992 to children she had not seen in decades. She was a grandmother by then.
Profiled are Kerry Max Cooke, Delbert Tibbs, David Keaton, Gary Gauger, Robert Earl Hayes and Sunny Jacobs, each played by actors such as Danny Glover and Sigourney Weaver who read from the vindicated's interview transcripts. All but Hayes have been freed; Hayes was still being held for an unrelated crime at the time the film was made.
The actors told each story against a black background, with brief cuts to recreations. Gauger is accused of shooting both of his parents and, even after it turned out that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has a tape of the killer confessing, it still took a year for Gauger to be released. Gauger was tricked into testifying based upon a 12-hour interrogation that was called a "voluntary conversation and confession" in court. He was released in 1996.
Jacobs was given the distinction of being the first woman on death row, she said. Jacobs drove to pick up her husband in Florida when his car broke down. One of her husband's friends offered Jacobs and her children a ride home. During that ride the family was pulled over by the police who realized that Jesse Jacobs' friend was actually Walter Rhodes, a man wanted for violating parole. Rhodes refused to go back to prison so he shot both officers and kidnapped the Jacob family. Once Jesse and Sunny Jacobs were taken in for questioning, Rhodes formed a plea deal that said his hostages had committed the crime.
The innocent Jesse Jacobs was put to death, even after Rhodes testified in 1979 that he himself had actually fired the fatal shots. Jacobs' death by electrocution took 13 minutes because of a malfunction that extended his suffering and caused his body to catch fire. Sunny Jacobs was released in 1992 to children she had not seen in decades. She was a grandmother by then.
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