STARKE, Fla. – 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.
6 p.m. report:
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.
Court records show Acosta was on a break on April 25, 2000, when she was attacked. She was reading a book in her van when Tanzi approached, asked for a cigarette, and began punching her in the face, the records state.
“Holding her wrist and threatening her with a razor blade,” Tanzi drove to Homestead, south of Miami, where he bound and gagged Acosta. Prosecutors said he took $53 in cash from her, along with her bank card.
They then headed to the Florida Keys town of Tavernier. There, according to the records, Tanzi used Acosta’s bank card to steal money from her account before stopping at a hardware store to buy duct tape and razor blades.
“He drove to an isolated area in Cudjoe Key, told her he was going to kill her, and began to strangle her,” according to a summary by the state Commission on Capital Cases. “He stopped to place duct tape over her mouth, nose and eyes in an attempt to quiet her and then strangled her.”
Acosta’s friends and co-workers reported her missing after she failed to return from her break. That led police to her van, which Tanzi drove to Key West. Police said Tanzi confessed to the crime and showed investigators where he had left Acosta’s body on Cudjoe Key, more than 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of Miami.
“If I had let her go, I was gonna get caught quicker,” Tanzi told officers, according to the record. “I didn’t want to get caught. I was having too much fun ... I told her, I says, ‘I can’t let you go. If I let you go, then I’m gonna be in a lot of trouble.’ ”
Tanzi was convicted of first-degree murder, carjacking, kidnapping and armed robbery, drawing a 12-0 jury recommendation for the death penalty.
All of his subsequent appeals were unsuccessful, including a late request for a stay of execution rejected Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Florida Supreme Court also recently rejected his claim he shouldn’t be executed because he was “morbidly obese” and had sciatica, raising the risk of unconstitutional levels of pain.
Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward offered the following statement after the execution:
“Today marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the family of Janet Acosta and for our community. Justice has been served, though we recognize that no legal action can ever truly bring peace to those who have lost a loved one to such violence. Our thoughts remain with Janet’s family and friends, and we continue to honor her memory as we work every day to ensure public safety and uphold the rule of law. This was a senseless, calculated act that took the life of a hardworking woman who was simply taking her lunch break. Her story reminds us all why we must remain vigilant in pursuing justice, no matter how long the road may be.”
Two other executions were conducted earlier this year in Florida. Edward James, 63, received a lethal injection March 20 for killing an 8-year-old girl and her grandmother during a night of heavy drinking and drug use. James Dennis Ford, 64, was executed Feb. 13 for killing a husband and wife at a remote farm in an attack witnessed by the couple’s toddler, who was unharmed.
Eight other people have been executed elsewhere in the U.S. in 2025: two in South Carolina, two in Texas and one each in Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana and Oklahoma. One South Carolina execution was by firing squad, and another firing squad execution is scheduled Friday. About a dozen other executions are still scheduled nationwide.
The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said Florida’s lethal injection uses a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart.