An 84 year old man who was sentenced to death for the murder of two gardai in 1980 and served almost 15 years in jail before his conviction were overturned, has died at his home in Connemara.
Peter Pringle served almost 15 years in jail before he was released in 1995 after his convictions were deemed unsafe and quashed.
He was sentenced to death for the capital murders of two gardaí, well-known Mayo footballer John Morley and colleague Henry Byrne, during a bank robbery in Ballaghaderreen in July 1980.
Two other men, Colm O’Shea and Pat McCann, were also sentenced to death for the murders of the two gardaí. They, along with Mr Pringle, had their death sentences commuted in 1981 by then president Patrick Hillary to penal servitude of 40 years.
O’Shea and McCann served 33 years in jail and were released from prison in 2013.
Peter Pringle, whose son Thomas is an Independent TD from Donegal, served 14 years and ten months in prison before the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1995 found his convictions to be unsafe and unsatisfactory.
In 2012 he married Sunny Jacobs, who was placed on death row in 1976 in Florida for the murder of two police officers. She served 17 years before she was exonerated.
After her release she campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty and met Peter Pringle after she travelled to Ireland to speak at an Amnesty International event in 1998.
They have lived in a cottage in Connemara for more than a decade.
Peter Pringle died on New Year’s Eve at his home at Glenicmurrin, Costelloe, Co Galway. He is survived by his wife Sunny, daughter Anna and sons Thomas and John, along with 12 grandchildren.
