In the Blink of an Eye (1996)
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About
Based on a true story, In the Blink of an Eye follows filmmaker and activist Micki Dickoff (Veronica Hamel) as she puts her career on hold to fight for the release of her childhood friend Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs (Mimi Rogers), who has spent more than a decade on death row for a crime she insists she did not commit.
In 1976, Sonia, her partner Jesse Tafero and a friend named Walter Rhodes were approached by two Florida Highway Patrol officers at a rest stop off Interstate 95 in Broward County. Gunfire broke out, both officers were killed, and the group fled in the troopers' patrol car. Sonia and Jesse were tried separately, convicted and sentenced to death largely on the testimony of Rhodes, who accepted a plea deal and a life sentence. Jesse was later executed in a notoriously botched electrocution while Sonia remained on death row, protesting her innocence.
Decades after losing touch, Micki reconnects with Sonia and becomes convinced the convictions are unsafe. She hires attorney Jose Quinon (Carlos Gómez), digs into Rhodes's shifting story and the perjured testimony of a jailhouse informant, and pushes the case back in front of a federal court. Told through Sonia's prison correspondence and Micki's dogged reinvestigation, the film builds to the plea deal that finally secured Sonia's freedom after 17 years in prison.
Details
Director: Micki Dickoff
Writer/Screenplay: Rama Laurie Stagner, Dan Witt
Producer: Micki Dickoff
Tagline: In A Single Moment Her Life Changed Forever.
Running time: 90min
Certificate: PG-13
Budget: $2 million
Box office: $5 million
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Released: March 24, 1996
Music Composer:
Cast
- Veronica Hamel as Micki Dickoff
- Mimi Rogers as Sonia Jacobs
- Carlos Gómez as Jose Quinon
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Jessie
- Brian Markinson as Satz
- Mary Mara as Chrisite
- Judith-Marie Bergan
- Denise Richards as Tina Jacobs
- Keith Brunsmann as Walter Rhodes
- T.J. Lowther as Young Eric
- Dan Diliberto
- Polly Bergen as Murial
- Paul Abbott as Jeremy
- Geoffrey Bennett as Reporter
Soundtrack
Franchise
Related
Trivia
- Based on the true story of Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs, who was released from a Florida prison in 1992 after 17 years, 5 of them on death row.
- The film was directed by the real Micki Dickoff, the activist whose investigation helped secure Jacobs's release.
- Originally aired on ABC as a made-for-television movie on March 24, 1996.
- Jesse Tafero, Jacobs's partner, was executed by electric chair in Florida in 1990 in a notoriously botched execution in which flames reportedly shot from his head after the chair malfunctioned.
- Walter Rhodes, the prosecution's key witness, later confessed to the shootings himself before retracting the confession.
- An early screen role for Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Sonia's partner Jessie.
