Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Tanzi's death warrant last month, condemning him for strangling Acosta, a veteran employee at the Miami Herald, after kidnapping her as she sat in her van on a lunch break at the Japanese Garden on Watson Island on April 25, 2000, court records show.

Michael Tanzi, a man who suffered from severe childhood abuse and mental illness, was executed for the 2000 murder of Janet Acosta, with critics arguing that the death penalty is a form of vengeance rather than justice.