TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block the scheduled April 8 execution of Michael Tanzi for the 2000 murder of a woman who was kidnapped in Miami during her lunch break and driven to Monroe County where she was strangled.
Justices, in a 23-page opinion, unanimously rejected a series of arguments raised by attorneys for Tanzi, including that using the state’s lethal-injection procedure on him would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
That argument stemmed from Tanzi’s obesity and other medical conditions, which his attorneys said could result in issues such as a sedation drug in the lethal-injection procedure not fully taking effect and difficulties in placing intravenous lines.
But the Supreme Court opinion said the argument was “untimely” because Tanzi’s medical conditions were known as early as 2009. Also, it described the argument as “meritless,” pointing to past rulings about the lethal-injection procedure, including the use of the sedative, etomidate.
“This court has repeatedly upheld Florida’s lethal injection protocol, including the etomidate protocol. … Additionally, this court has considered and rejected similar arguments based on obesity and IV procedures,” the opinion said.
Also, the Supreme Court said Tanzi’s attorneys had not identified an alternative method of execution that would entail less pain. The opinion said Tanzi’s attorneys had raised the prospect of a firing squad or lethal gas. Under Florida law, executions must be carried out by lethal injection or the electric chair.
“Tanzi has not shown how either of his two proposed alternate methods, lethal gas and the firing squad, could be ‘readily implemented,’ or in fact significantly reduces the substantial risk of severe pain, given the physical conditions he describes,” the opinion said.
Tanzi’s attorneys went to the Supreme Court after Monroe County Circuit Judge Timothy Koenig issued a 12-page decision rejecting arguments seeking to halt the execution. After losing at the Florida Supreme Court, defense attorneys typically make last-ditch appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to prevent executions.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 10 signed a death warrant for Tanzi, 48, who was convicted in the April 2000 murder of Janet Acosta. Tuesday’s opinion said Tanzi approached and attacked Acosta as she sat in her van reading a book during a lunch break.
“Threatening Acosta with a razor blade, he abducted her,” the opinion said. “After driving to Homestead with Acosta in the van, Tanzi bound, gagged, and sexually battered her. Tanzi continued to drive until he reached Cudjoe Key, where he fatally strangled Acosta and disposed of her body.”
In a brief filed at the Supreme Court, Tanzi’s attorneys described him as “morbidly obese” and said he had medical conditions such as sciatica, a nerve condition that affects his back. Tanzi’s lawyers argued that because of his body mass, etomidate, the first of three drugs administered in lethal injection, likely would not “keep Mr. Tanzi in a deep state of sedation for the duration of his execution.”
The brief argued that “there is a significant risk that Mr. Tanzi will be paralyzed but aware” when another drug is administered, “creating the sensation of being burned from the inside.”
But the Attorney General’s Office, in a brief, disputed those arguments.
“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,” the state’s brief said.
The Supreme Court issued its opinion a day after DeSantis issued a death warrant for Jeffrey Hutchinson, who was convicted in the 1998 murders of his girlfriend and her three children in Okaloosa County. Hutchinson is scheduled to be executed May 1.
Tanzi would be the third Florida inmate executed this year, after James Ford on Feb. 13 and Edward James on March 20. The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops on Monday appealed to DeSantis to grant a stay of execution to Tanzi and commute his sentence to life in prison.
In a letter, Michael Sheedy, executive director of the conference, described the murder of Acosta as “heinous” and said it is “indeed a duty of the state to protect the lives and safety of its citizens and to impose appropriate punishment for crimes.” But he urged DeSantis to spare Tanzi’s life.
“Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is still a severe punishment which also serves to protect society from further danger from Mr. Tanzi,” the letter said. “The intrinsic dignity and unalienable rights of every human being are not annihilated by even gravely evil acts. Mr. Tanzi still deserves to be treated in accordance with that dignity.”
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