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.

Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000.

STARKE — A Florida man convicted of killing a Miami Herald employee who was abducted on her lunch break was executed Tuesday evening. Michael Tanzi was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison for the April 2000 strangling of Janet Acosta.