Death Penalty

Forty-eight-year-old Michael Tanzi is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison for the April 2000 murder of Janet Acosta.

Gov. Ron DeSantis as signed the death warrant for 48-year-old Michael Tanzi, who was found guilty of murdering 49-year-old Janet Acosta in Miami. It would be Florida's third execution of the year.

James D. Ford, who was convicted of murdering a young couple in 1999 in southwest Florida while their toddler looked on, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison on Thursday and pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. Around 25 people witnessed the execution and Ford had no final statement, according to the Associated Press.

About 30 years have passed since Loran Cole was found guilty of both first-degree murder and sexual battery.

Attorneys for the state of Florida say the execution of a man with Parkinson’s symptoms should not be delayed. Death row inmate Loran Cole is appealing the state's lethal injection procedures to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ruling likely will set off a flurry of appeals in the runup to the scheduled Aug. 29 execution of Loran Cole. Cole was sentenced to death in the February 1994 murder of John Edwards, who went to the Ocala National Forest to camp with his sister, a student at Eckerd College, court records show.

Loran Cole, 57, was sentenced to death in the February 1994 murder of John Edwards, who went to the Ocala National Forest to camp with his sister, a student at Eckerd College, court records show. Cole was 17 when he was sent to Dozier in 1984.

John Edwards was murdered in 1994. Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Loran Cole, who would be the first inmate executed in Florida since October.

A 2023 law that lowered the number of jurors needed to recommend execution — prompted by the sentencing of the Parkland shooter — has resulted in a “quintessential game of chance” for inmates being resentenced, groups are arguing in what could be a pivotal Florida Supreme Court case.

Without explanation, the Supreme Court issued an order rejecting requests by inmate Duane Owen's lawyers to halt Thursday's planned execution. The Florida Supreme Court also issued two opinions last week refusing to block the execution.

In what would be Florida’s fourth execution in less than four months, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for a man convicted of committing two murders in Palm Beach County nearly 40 years ago.

The law permits the death penalty even in cases where only eight of 12 jurors approve. Two formerly condemned inmates who are still behind bars say the change gives too much power over life and death to prosecutors.