Florida completes its sixth execution of 2023

As reported in this AP piece, “man who killed two women after meeting them a day apart in north Florida bars in 1996 was put to death Tuesday evening.” Here is more:

Michael Zack III, 54, was pronounced dead minutes after 6:14 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke….

He was executed for the murder of Ravonne Smith, a bar employee he befriended and later beat and stabbed with an oyster knife in June 1996.  He also was convicted and separately sentenced to life in prison for murdering Laura Rosillo, who he met at another Florida Panhandle bar….

Zack’s lawyers had sought to stop the execution, arguing that he was a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder.  On Monday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Zack’s appeal for a stay of execution without comment.

Zack’s execution was the eighth under Gov. Ron DeSantis since 2019 and the sixth this year after no executions were carried out from 2020 to 2022.  DeSantis has made tougher, more far-reaching death penalty laws an issue in his presidential campaign.