TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Pointing to his obesity and other medical conditions, lawyers for Death Row inmate Michael Tanzi are trying to halt his scheduled April 8 execution by arguing that using the state’s lethal-injection procedure would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Tanzi’s lawyers and the state Attorney General’s Office have filed a flurry of documents this week at the Florida Supreme Court, as justices consider whether the execution should proceed.
In a brief filed Monday, Tanzi’s lawyers described him as a “48-year-old morbidly obese” man who suffers from conditions such as sciatica, a nerve condition that affects his back. The brief argued that using the state’s three-drug lethal injection procedure on Tanzi could result in issues such as a sedation drug not fully taking effect and difficulties in placing intravenous lines.
“The existing protocols for lethal injection do not contemplate the execution of someone with obesity and uncontrolled medical conditions, like Mr. Tanzi’s, that are likely to complicate the lethal injection process,” the brief said. “Executing Mr. Tanzi using the existing protocols is likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering.”
But in a brief filed Wednesday, the Attorney General’s Office said Tanzi had not shown that using lethal injection on him would violate the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The state’s brief also said Tanzi has “long known of his general medical condition, heavy weight and asserted back issues” and that the current lethal-injection procedure has been in place since 2017.
“There is no provision in Florida law that supports waiting until a death warrant is signed to litigate an Eighth Amendment lethal injection claim,” the Attorney General’s Office argued. “Tanzi fails to credibly or adequately explain how the facts on which his claim is based were unknown to him or his attorneys and could not have been ascertained by the exercise of due diligence.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 10 signed a death warrant for Tanzi, who was convicted in the April 2000 murder of Janet Acosta. Court documents said Tanzi assaulted and kidnapped Acosta as she sat in her van during her lunch hour in Miami. Tanzi drove to the Florida Keys, strangled Acosta and disposed of her body in a secluded area, the documents said.
Monroe County Circuit Judge Timothy Koenig last week issued a 12-page decision rejecting arguments by Tanzi’s lawyers seeking to halt the execution. The lawyers went to the Supreme Court, asking for a stay of execution and to return the case to circuit court for further proceedings.
It is unclear when the Supreme Court will rule.
Among the issues in the appeal is the state’s use of the drug etomidate as a sedative before other lethal-injection drugs are administered. Tanzi’s lawyers argued in this week’s brief that because of his body mass, the drug 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 the brief filed Wednesday, 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.
Under Florida law, executions must be carried out by lethal injection or the electric chair. The state House and Senate have started moving forward with bills (SB 1604 and HB 903) that would allow “a method not deemed unconstitutional” — which could authorize execution by firing squad or nitrogen gas.
