Lawyers working for a death row inmate say he should not be executed because he’s ‘too obese’.
Michael Tanzi, 48, who was found guilty of murdering Janet Acosta, 49, in 2003, is set to face the ultimate punishment on April 8 at Florida State Prison. However, his legal team has been desperately trying to prevent him from becoming the 11th person to be put to death in America since the start of the year.
In an appeal they filed last week, the defenders stated that Tanzi’s weight would make the execution unlawful and lead to his “needless suffering”. The reason for this, they argued, is current death penalty ‘protocols’ should not be applied to someone suffering from obesity or illnesses associated with it.
The lawyers said Tanzi also has “severe chronic sciatica […] hyperlipidemia, uncontrolled hypertension, and gastroesophageal reflux disease”. The document read, per New York Post: “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. Executing Mr. Tanzi using the existing protocols is likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering.”
Janet Acosta was seated inside her parked van in April 2000 when Tanzi attacked her and threatened her with a razor blade, according to court documents. Tanzi bound and gagged the woman and began heading toward the Florida Keys in her van. Tanzi sexually assaulted Acosta at one point and used her bank card to take money from ATMs.
Tanzi eventually drove to an isolated area of Cudjoe Key, where he strangled Acosta and left her body, officials said. He then drove to Key West to visit friends. As Tanzi was making his way through the Keys, Acosta’s friends reported her missing. Police recognized the woman’s van and arrested Tanzi.
Tanzi’s execution would be the state’s third so far this year. James Dennis Ford was put to death in February for murdering a couple in 1997 in Charlotte County. Edward James is scheduled to be executed March 20 for murdering a woman and raping and killing her 8-year-old-granddaughter in Seminole County in 1993.
Meanwhile, a second death row inmate in South Carolina has chosen to die by firing squad just five weeks after the state carried out its first execution using the controversial method.
Mikal Mahdi, who pleaded guilty to murder for killing a police officer in 2004, is scheduled to be executed on April 11. Mahdi, 41, had the choice of dying by firing squad, lethal injection or electrocution.
He will be the first inmate to be executed in the state since Brad Sigmon chose to be shot to death on March 7. A doctor pronounced Sigmon dead less than three minutes after three bullets tore into his heart. “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils,” one of his lawyers, David Weiss, said in a statement. “Mikal chose the firing squad instead of being burned and mutilated in the electric chair, or suffering a lingering death on the lethal injection gurney.”
