Florida completes its third execution in 2025

As reported in this AP article, a “Florida man convicted of killing a Miami Herald employee who was abducted on her lunch break was executed Tuesday evening.” Here is more:

Michael Tanzi was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison for the April 2000 strangling of Janet Acosta, a production worker at the South Florida paper. The victim was attacked in her van, beaten, robbed, driven to the Florida Keys and then strangled before her body was left on an island.

In a final statement, his voice barely audible, Tanzi said, “I want to apologize to the family” and then recited a verse from the Bible before the drugs began flowing….

He was the third person executed in Florida this year.  Another lethal injection is scheduled May 1 under death warrants signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

After the execution, Acosta’s family members expressed relief that the ordeal was finally over. “It’s done. Basically, justice for Janet happened,” said her sister, Julie Andrew, who witnessed the execution. ”My heart felt lighter and I can breathe again.”…

Court records show Acosta was on a break on April 25, 2000, when she was attacked.  She was reading a book in her van when Tanzi approached, asked for a cigarette, and began punching her in the face, the records state…. “He drove to an isolated area in Cudjoe Key, told her he was going to kill her, and began to strangle her,” according to a summary by the state Commission on Capital Cases.  “He stopped to place duct tape over her mouth, nose and eyes in an attempt to quiet her and then strangled her.”

Acosta’s friends and co-workers reported her missing after she failed to return from her break.  That led police to her van, which Tanzi drove to Key West.  Police said Tanzi confessed to the crime and showed investigators where he had left Acosta’s body on Cudjoe Key, more than 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of Miami….

Tanzi was convicted of first-degree murder, carjacking, kidnapping and armed robbery, drawing a 12-0 jury recommendation for the death penalty.  All of his subsequent appeals were unsuccessful, including a late request for a stay of execution rejected Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Florida Supreme Court also recently rejected his claim he shouldn’t be executed because he was “morbidly obese” and had sciatica, raising the risk of unconstitutional levels of pain.