Florida Man Executed for Murder of Miami Herald Staff Member

STARKE, Fla.—A man from Florida who was found guilty of murdering a Miami Herald employee, who was taken during her lunch hour, was executed on Tuesday evening.

Michael Tanzi was declared dead at 6:12 p.m. after undergoing a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison for the strangulation of Janet Acosta in April 2000. Acosta, a production worker for the South Florida newspaper, was attacked while sitting in her van. She was beaten, robbed, driven to the Florida Keys, and then strangled, with her body abandoned on an island.

In his last words, barely audible, Tanzi expressed, “I want to apologize to the family” followed by a Bible verse before the execution drugs were administered.

Tanzi’s chest heaved for roughly three minutes before it ceased. A corrections officer shook him by the shoulders and called his name loudly twice to check for consciousness. There was no response just moments before Tanzi, aged 48, was officially pronounced dead.

This marks the third execution in Florida this year, with another lethal injection planned for May 1, as decreed by Governor Ron DeSantis.

Following the execution, members of Acosta’s family shared their relief that the painful chapter was finally closed. “It’s done. Basically, justice for Janet has been served,” stated her sister, Julie Andrew, who attended the execution. “My heart feels lighter, and I can breathe again.”

Acosta’s niece, Janet Vanderwier, remarked that achieving closure took nearly 25 years. “This is the result of more than two decades of efforts to attain justice for Janet,” she mentioned.

Court documents indicate that Acosta was on her break on April 25, 2000, when she was attacked. She was reportedly reading in her van when Tanzi approached her, requested a cigarette, and then began assaulting her.

“While holding her wrist and threatening her with a razor blade,” Tanzi drove to Homestead, south of Miami, where he proceeded to bind and gag Acosta. Prosecutors stated he stole $53 in cash from her, along with her bank card.

They then traveled to Tavernier in the Florida Keys, where Tanzi used Acosta’s bank card to withdraw funds from her account, before stopping at a hardware store to purchase duct tape and razor blades.

“He drove to a secluded area in Cudjoe Key, told her he intended to kill her, and began to strangle her,” according to a summary from the state Commission on Capital Cases. “He paused to place duct tape over her mouth, nose, and eyes to silence her, then resumed strangling her.”

Acosta’s friends and coworkers reported her missing when she did not return from her break. This led police to her van, which Tanzi was found to have driven to Key West. The police reported that Tanzi confessed to the crime and showed investigators where he had left Acosta’s body on Cudjoe Key, more than 140 miles southwest of Miami.

“If I had let her go, I would have gotten caught sooner,” Tanzi told officers, according to the records. “I didn’t want to get caught. I was enjoying myself too much … I told her, I said, ‘I can’t let you go. If I do, I’m going to be in a lot of trouble.’”

Tanzi was convicted on charges of first-degree murder, carjacking, kidnapping, and armed robbery, receiving a unanimous 12–0 jury recommendation for the death penalty.

All of his subsequent appeals failed, including a last-minute request for a stay of execution that was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon. The Florida Supreme Court also recently dismissed his argument against execution based on claims of being “morbidly obese” and suffering from sciatica, which he claimed raised the risk of unconstitutional pain levels during execution.

Earlier this year, Florida executed two other inmates. Edward James, 63, was lethally injected on March 20 for the murders of an 8-year-old girl and her grandmother during a night of heavy drinking and drug use, while James Dennis Ford, 64, was executed on February 13 for killing a couple at a remote farm, an attack witnessed by their toddler who escaped unharmed.

Eight additional executions have taken place in other states within the U.S. in 2025: two in South Carolina, two in Texas, and one each in Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. One of the South Carolina executions was by firing squad, and another is scheduled for Friday. Roughly a dozen other executions remain on schedule across the country.

The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center stated that Florida’s lethal injection consists of a sedative, a paralytic agent, and a drug that induces cardiac arrest.

By Curt Anderson