Last meal of death row inmate executed by lethal injection despite arguing it could cause ‘needless suffering’
A death row inmate has been executed just under 25 years since wickedly murdering an employee of the Miami Herald newspaper in South Florida.
At 6.12pm ET yesterday (April 8), Michael Tanzi was pronounced dead by way of lethal injection - despite his legal team claiming the double murderer could undergo 'needless suffering' in the process due to being 'morbidly obese' and suffering from sciatica.
However, the Supreme Court rejected this claim and the 48-year-old completed his sentence for the killing of 49-year-old production worker Janet Acosta, who he killed after forcing his way into her van while she was eating her lunch on April 25, 2000.
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Before his execution he, like many others on death row, was offered a last meal and he opted for a fried pork chop, bacon, corn, a baked potato, then for dessert he was granted ice cream, as well as a candy bar - all washed down with a soda.
While his sentence was carried out at Florida State Prison, just under an hour drive southwest from Jacksonville, he also confessed to the murder of mother-of-two Caroline Holder in Brockton, Massachusetts.
The 37-year-old was killed on August 11, 1999, although Tanzi, whose last words echoed that of many death row inmates, was never charged with her murder.
He did however, plead guilty to first-degree murder, carjacking, kidnapping and armed robbery following Acosta's death.
"I want to apologise to the family of Janet Acosta and Caroline Holder for taking their lives," he said through a speaker before the injection was administered.
"Heavenly Father, please do not blame those who do not know what they're doing."
Acosta had been eating lunch in her van near the Japanese Rock Gardens in Miami when Tanzi forced his way into her van and tied her up, threatening to kill her if she resisted.
According to prosecutors working on the case, Tanzi then drove Acosta to Florida City, where he assaulted her and threatened he would 'slice her neck'.
He then drove the van towards Key West, stopping to withdraw cash using Acosta's card along the way, and approximately four hours after the ordeal began Tanzi strangled Acosta and buried her in a secluded place.
A few days later, Tanzi was caught after police spotted him returning to Acosta's car, which had been placed under surveillance after her friends and family reported her missing.
Before his execution yesterday (April 8), Tanzi's lawyers attempted to stop the execution from taking place due to him being morbidly obese - weighing 383 pounds at 6ft 3.
“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 lawyers said in a court filing.
However, the Supreme Court rejected this on the basis the request wasn't timely as his health problems had been known since 2009.
Joe Yates