A person convicted of killing a girl who was carjacked on her lunch break from her job on the Miami Herald is about to be executed Tuesday night.
Michael Tanzi was scheduled to obtain a deadly injection at Florida state jail for the 2000 abduction and strangling of Janet Acosta. A manufacturing employee on the South Florida paper, Acosta was overwhelmed, robbed, pushed to the Florida Keys after which strangled and her physique left on an island.
Tanzi, 48, would develop into the third individual executed in Florida this 12 months, with one other deadly injection scheduled on 1 Could below loss of life warrants signed by Ron DeSantis, the state governor.
The US supreme court docket rejected a request from Tanzi’s attorneys to dam the execution Tuesday afternoon. The court docket provided no famous dissent in its one-sentence assertion declining to intervene.
Jail officers mentioned Tanzi awoke at 4.45am and had one customer, a non secular adviser. He had a final meal that included a pork chop, bacon, corn, ice cream and a sweet bar. “He’s remained compliant and in good spirits,” mentioned Ted Veerman, a corrections division spokesperson.
Courtroom data present the sufferer in her van on a break from her job on the newspaper on 25 April 2020, when Tanzi approached her to ask for a cigarette after which attacked her. He then drove to Homestead, south of Miami, the place he stopped at a gasoline station and certain and gagged Acosta.
He took $53 in money from her, alongside together with her financial institution card. He then headed to the Florida Keys city of Tavernier, the place Tanzi stole cash from Acosta’s account together with her financial institution card, in line with the data.
Tanzi additionally stopped at a ironmongery store the place he purchased duct tape and razor blades, the document confirmed. Based on a abstract by the state fee on capital circumstances, Tanzi then drove to an remoted space in Cudjoe Key and strangled Acosta to loss of life.
In the meantime, Acosta’s pals and associates reported her lacking when she didn’t return from her break. That led police to her van, which Tanzi had pushed to Key West. Police mentioned Tanzi confessed to the crime and confirmed investigators the place he had left Acosta’s physique on Cudjoe Key, greater than 140 miles (225km) south-west of Miami.
“If I had let her go, I used to be gonna get caught faster,” Tanzi informed officers, in line with the document. “I didn’t need to get caught. I used to be having an excessive amount of enjoyable … I informed her, I says, ‘I can’t allow you to go. If I allow you to go, then I’m gonna be in plenty of hassle.’ ”
Tanzi was convicted of first-degree homicide, carjacking, kidnapping and armed theft. A jury really useful the loss of life sentence in a 12-0 vote.
Tanzi has filed a number of appeals with out success. The Florida supreme court docket just lately rejected his declare that he shouldn’t be executed as a result of he’s “morbidly overweight” and has sciatica, which might trigger unconstitutional ranges of ache. The court docket dominated his enchantment was not well timed as a result of his circumstances had been recognized since 2009.
Two executions had been carried out earlier this 12 months in Florida. Edward James, 63, was put to loss of life on 20 March for killing an eight-year-old woman and her grandmother throughout an evening of heavy ingesting and drug use. James Dennis Ford, 64, was executed on 13 February for killing a husband and spouse at a distant Florida farm in an assault witnessed by the couple’s toddler, who was left unhurt.
Eight different individuals have been executed throughout the US up to now in 2025: two in South Carolina, two in Texas and one every in Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana and Oklahoma. One of many South Carolina executions used a firing squad, and one other firing squad execution is scheduled Friday. A couple of dozen different executions are already scheduled nationwide.
The non-profit Loss of life Penalty Data Middle mentioned Florida makes use of a three-drug cocktail for its deadly injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the guts.
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