10 April 2025 :

April 8, 2025 - Florida. Michael Tanzi, 48, White, was executed.

Michael Tanzi was pronounced dead at 6.12 pm following a 3-drug injection at Florida state prison for the April 2000 strangling of Janet Acosta. 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.

Tanzi’s chest heaved for about 3 minutes, then stopped. A corrections officer shook him by the shoulders and said his name loudly twice to determine if he was still conscious. There was no response shortly before Tanzi was declared dead.

Court records show Acosta, 49, was in her van on a break from her job on 25 April 2020, when Tanzi approached her to ask for a cigarette and then attacked her. Police said Tanzi confessed to the crime and showed investigators where he had left Acosta’s body.

Tanzi was convicted of 1st-degree murder, carjacking, kidnapping and armed robbery. A jury recommended the death sentence in a 12-0 vote.

Tanzi becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Florida, the 109th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on May 25, 1979, the 11th inmate to be put to death this year in the USA, the 1,618th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

On tanzi’s case see also HoC 20/02/2003 and 11/04/2003.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/08/florida-execution-michael-tanzi-janet-acosta