Lawyers for Death Row inmate Michael Tanzi are attempting to halt his scheduled April 8th execution, arguing that Florida’s lethal injection procedure would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment due to his obesity and other medical conditions.
A flurry of legal filings has been exchanged this week between Tanzi’s attorneys and the state Attorney General’s Office at the Florida Supreme Court, as the justices deliberate on whether the execution should proceed.
In a brief submitted Monday, Tanzi’s legal team described him as a “48-year-old morbidly obese” man with conditions such as sciatica. The brief contended that the state’s three-drug lethal injection protocol could lead to complications for Tanzi, including the sedation drug’s potential ineffectiveness and difficulties with intravenous line placement.
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“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 stated. “Executing Mr. Tanzi using the existing protocols is likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering.”
However, the Attorney General’s Office, in its Wednesday brief, countered that Tanzi had not demonstrated that lethal injection would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
The state’s brief also argued that Tanzi has been aware of his “general medical condition, heavy weight, and asserted back issues” for a long time, and the current lethal injection procedure has been in place since 2017.
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“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.”
Governor Ron DeSantis signed Tanzi’s death warrant on March 10th. Tanzi was convicted in the April 2000 murder of Janet Acosta. Court documents detail that Tanzi assaulted and kidnapped Acosta during her lunch hour in Miami, drove her to the Florida Keys, strangled her, and disposed of her body.
Florida law currently mandates executions by lethal injection or electric chair. The state Legislature is considering bills (SB 1604 and HB 903) to allow “a method not deemed unconstitutional,” which could include execution by firing squad or nitrogen gas.
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