Stolen Time
by Sunny Jacobs

Doubleday, £14.99

In the summer of 1976, Sunny Jacobs, a 28-year-old mother-of-two, was convicted together with her partner Jesse Tafero, for the murder of two police officers in Florida. She was to spend five years in solitary confinement on death row and thereafter a further 12 years in prison. The added twist was, of course, that both she and Jesse were innocent. It was not until 1992 that she was finally exonerated.



However, two years earlier, Jesse had been executed by the electric chair. It was to be the last time that the electric chair was used in Florida, before the authorities switched to lethal injection.



'It took thirteen-and-a-half minutes for Jesse to die. Three jolts of electricity that lasted fifty-five seconds each. Almost a minute. Each. Until finally flames shot out from his head, and smoke came from his ears.'



As if that was not enough to test anyone, whilst Sunny was in prison, her parents were killed in a plane crash and she lost contact with her children. This is a remarkable story of pain, suffering and, ultimately, of hope.



Sunny Jacobs' autobiography tells the story of how her world was turned upside down in the blink of an eye. The story is told in her own words, using love letters she had written to Jesse during their imprisonment and the 'torn and crumpled bits and pieces of a shattered life written on scraps of whatever paper I could find, sometimes even toilet paper'.



Whilst this book will never be a literary classic, it is an engrossing journey through an extraordinary life. In many ways, Sunny seems incredibly reconciled with the hand that fate has dealt her. Hers is not a story of anger, bitterness or even hatred. Hers is one of optimism, of love and of her future, whatever it brings.



'The prize for me is that I have a beautiful life now. That is the prize; otherwise I might be a bitter woman blaming somebody else.'