Florida Executes Man Convicted Of Killing Miami Herald Employee

A Florida man convicted of killing a Miami Herald employee who was abducted on her lunch break was executed Tuesday evening. Michael Tanzi was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison for the April 2000 strangling of Janet Acosta, a production worker at the South Florida paper. 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, the Associated Press reports. 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 three 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, 48, was declared dead.

He was the third person executed in Florida this year. Another lethal injection is scheduled May 1 under death warrants signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. After the execution, Acosta’s family members expressed relief that the ordeal was finally over. “It’s done. Basically, justice for Janet happened,” said her sister, Julie Andrew, who witnessed the execution. ”My heart felt lighter and I can breathe again.” Acosta’s niece, Janet Vanderwier, noted it took nearly 25 years to find closure. “This is the culmination of more than two decades of work to get justice for Janet,” she said. where he had left Acosta’s body on Cudjoe Key, more than 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of Miami.