Featured Image Credit: Florida Department of Corrections
Topics: Death Row, News, US News, Crime, True crime
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Death Row, News, US News, Crime, True crime
Warning: This article contains discussion of rape which some readers may find distressing.
Michael Tanzi died on April 8 after being sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Janet Acosta in 2000.
Michael Anthony Tanzi, 48, was pronounced dead 6.12pm local time in Florida State Prison in Raiford.
Gov. Ron DeSantis was the official to sign his death warrant for execution on March 10, with the date scheduled for April 8.
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Tanzi lawyers attempted to have the lethal injection execution halted, claiming that the inmate was morbidly obese and suffered with sciatica.
They argued that his nerve condition would cause Tanzi pain if he was to lie down and be restrained for the lethal injection.
His lawyers said: “Being in this position and suffering 'severe sciatic nerve pain' would require DOC ‘to torture him simply to establish and maintain two working intravenous sites.'"
The team also claimed that Tanzi's size could mean that a sedative intended to numb any pain may not be effective.
However, the Florida Attorney General’s Office argued that Tanzi and his team had nothing to support their 'groundless assertion' that the sedative would not work.
In his final moments, Tanzi took it as an opportunity to speak to the family of Janet Acosta.
He said: “I want to apologize to the family of Janet Acosta and Caroline Holder for taking their lives.
"Heavenly Father, please do not blame those who do not know what they're doing."
Tanzi was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Janet Acosta a 49-year-old woman and employee at the Miami Herald when he was just 20 years-old.
Tanzi attacked Acosta while she was seated inside her parked van and threatened her with a razor blade.
He then bound and gagged her and took control of her vehicle in a bid to drive towards Florida Keys.
He proceeded to sexually assault her and used her bank card to withdraw money. He would then turn on her and strangled her to death before disposing of her body.
He was caught a few days later after police spotted him returning to her car, which had been put under surveillance after Acosta had been reported missing.
When in police custody, Tanzi also confessed to killing of a woman named Caroline Holder, in Brockton, Massachusetts a few months earlier.
At the time, Miami police Detective Frank Casanovas told the Miami Herald: "What we have here is a fledgling serial killer."