TALLAHASSEE, FL - The state of Florida is set to execute its third inmate of the year on Tuesday, April 8th, even as the man's lawyers claim he is "too obese" for a lethal injection.
According to reports, Michael Tanzi, who local authorities refer to as a "fledgling serial killer," pleaded guilty on January 31, 2003 and was convicted of first-degree murder after he assaulted, abducted, robbed, and raped former Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta. Court documents state that his execution date has been set for April 8th at 12:00 p.m.
Tanzi's attorneys have tried to stop the scheduled execution, stating that his weight and health conditions could lead to a botched lethal injection. Florida courts, however, have denied any appeals to Tanzi's impending death sentence. His only hope now lies with clemency from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed his death warrant, or an eleventh-hour intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tanzi, who is now 48-years-old, is morbidly obese and suffers from sciatica, a condition that causes pain on the back's sciatic nerve. His lawyers claim that the lethal injection procedure might not work because of his weight and would leave him "paralyzed but aware" during the process.
His lawyers said that in the weeks before the death warrant was signed, Tanzi, who is 6'3", weighed 383 pounds. In response to Tanzi's legal team, the Florida Attorney General's Office said that they have not shown that the state's lethal injection would violate the 8th Amendment, which has to do with cruel and unusual punishment.
The state said, "Tanzi fails to offer any support for his groundless assertion that the massive dose of etomidate, that has been repeatedly and successfully used in Florida's lethal injection protocol, will not work for him."
On April 23, 2000, Tanzi approached Acosta while she was on her lunch break and asked her for a cigarette and the time, before punching her and forcing his way inot her car, threatening to cut her "ear to ear" if she resisted. He then drove south and forced her to perform oral sex on him at a Texaco station, threatening to cut her with a razor, before tying her up in the back seat of his van.
Eventually, he strangled her to death at Sugarloaf Key and hid her body in a secluded place. When Tanzi was apprehended a few days later, detectives said in an interview he admitted to killing her, saying, "If I had let her go I was gonna get caught quicker. I didn't want to get caught. I was having too much fun."
According to the Palm Beach Post, police said that Tanzi also confessed to killing Caroline Holder in Brockton, Massachusetts just a few months earlier. Tanzi had previously been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing a van and breaking into a home in a Boston suburb, but was released in 1999 after serving six months.
Holder was stabbed to death and beat on February 11, 2003 while she was working at a laundromat. He didn't face extradition for it because of his death sentence for Acosta's murder. At the time, Miami Police Detective Frank Casanovas said, "What we have here is a fledgling serial killer."
From 1924 until May 1964, the state of Florida has executed 196 people. There were no executions from May 1964 until May 1976. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court struck down the death penalty, but it was reinstated in 1976. Since then, Florida has carried out an additional 107 executions.
According to reports, Michael Tanzi, who local authorities refer to as a "fledgling serial killer," pleaded guilty on January 31, 2003 and was convicted of first-degree murder after he assaulted, abducted, robbed, and raped former Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta. Court documents state that his execution date has been set for April 8th at 12:00 p.m.
Tanzi's attorneys have tried to stop the scheduled execution, stating that his weight and health conditions could lead to a botched lethal injection. Florida courts, however, have denied any appeals to Tanzi's impending death sentence. His only hope now lies with clemency from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed his death warrant, or an eleventh-hour intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tanzi, who is now 48-years-old, is morbidly obese and suffers from sciatica, a condition that causes pain on the back's sciatic nerve. His lawyers claim that the lethal injection procedure might not work because of his weight and would leave him "paralyzed but aware" during the process.
His lawyers said that in the weeks before the death warrant was signed, Tanzi, who is 6'3", weighed 383 pounds. In response to Tanzi's legal team, the Florida Attorney General's Office said that they have not shown that the state's lethal injection would violate the 8th Amendment, which has to do with cruel and unusual punishment.
The state said, "Tanzi fails to offer any support for his groundless assertion that the massive dose of etomidate, that has been repeatedly and successfully used in Florida's lethal injection protocol, will not work for him."
On April 23, 2000, Tanzi approached Acosta while she was on her lunch break and asked her for a cigarette and the time, before punching her and forcing his way inot her car, threatening to cut her "ear to ear" if she resisted. He then drove south and forced her to perform oral sex on him at a Texaco station, threatening to cut her with a razor, before tying her up in the back seat of his van.
Eventually, he strangled her to death at Sugarloaf Key and hid her body in a secluded place. When Tanzi was apprehended a few days later, detectives said in an interview he admitted to killing her, saying, "If I had let her go I was gonna get caught quicker. I didn't want to get caught. I was having too much fun."
According to the Palm Beach Post, police said that Tanzi also confessed to killing Caroline Holder in Brockton, Massachusetts just a few months earlier. Tanzi had previously been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing a van and breaking into a home in a Boston suburb, but was released in 1999 after serving six months.
Holder was stabbed to death and beat on February 11, 2003 while she was working at a laundromat. He didn't face extradition for it because of his death sentence for Acosta's murder. At the time, Miami Police Detective Frank Casanovas said, "What we have here is a fledgling serial killer."
From 1924 until May 1964, the state of Florida has executed 196 people. There were no executions from May 1964 until May 1976. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court struck down the death penalty, but it was reinstated in 1976. Since then, Florida has carried out an additional 107 executions.
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Comments
2025-04-10T11:54-0400 | Comment by: James
Too fat to inject? Now I have heard it all! Give him the death penalty he deserves! He should be raped and tortured first though! Just like he did to his victim!