Reason why inmate on death row was executed despite trying to use 'morbid obesity' to avoid being killed

A death row inmate was executed via lethal injection on Tuesday (8 April) despite his legal team claiming he was too 'morbidly obese' to be killed.

48-year-old Michael Anthony Tanzi had been a resident at Florida State Prison for the last 25 years.

In April 2000, he kidnapped, brutally assaulted and murdered 49-year-old Janet Acosta - a production worker at the Miami Herald.

Tanzi attacked Acosta whilst she was on her lunch break, entering her vehicle and ordering her to drive out to Key West. It was there that Tanzi bound and gagged Acosta, before strangling her to death.

The state Commission on Capital Cases summary said of his crime: "He drove to an isolated area in Cudjoe Key, told her he was going to kill her, and began to strangle her.

"He stopped to place duct tape over her mouth, nose and eyes in an attempt to quiet her and then strangled her until she expired."

Tanzi was convicted of first-degree murder, carjacking, kidnapping and armed robbery and subsequently sentenced to death, and had spent over two decades awaiting his execution.

Janet Acosta was murdered in 1999 (Family Handout)

Earlier this year, his death date was stated as April, and it was ruled that he'd become the 11th individual to face a lethal injection in the United States of American this year.

After the execution date was announced, however, Tanzi's legal team attempted to insist that his life should be spared due to his physique, claiming his 'morbid obesity' should be considered as a factor.

The claim was made on the grounds that he suffered from sciatica - a type of pain that radiates along the sciatic nerve, travelling from the lower back or buttock and down the leg. The condition is often caused by pressure or damage to the nerve in question.

Tanzi's legal team claimed that his death could cause 'unconstitutional levels of pain' and was therefore unethical, Associated Press reports.

However, the Supreme Court rejected the lawyer's claims, arguing that it had been known that Tanzi - who was 6ft3 and weighed 383 pounds weeks prior to his execution, his lawyers said (via PEOPLE) - had been suffering from health concerns since 2009.

According to FOX News, similar appeals regarding weight had been rejected previously.

The Court, therefore, declared his request untimely.

Tanzi's team's request was denied (Florida Department of Corrections)

Whilst in the execution chamber on Tuesday, Tanzi issued a final apology to Acosta and Caroline Holder's families.

He'd also confessed to having murdered 37-year-old Holder in Massachusetts months prior to Acosta's death, with The Independent reporting that he never faced extradition or a trial over her death because of his death sentence for the murder of Acosta.

Tanzi was pronounced dead at 6.12 pm local time after receiving a three-drug protocol.

According to FOX News, he breathed deeply for 'about three minutes' before his movements stopped and his final breath left his lips.

Officials later told Newsweek that his final meal consisted of a fried pork chop, bacon, a baked potato, corn, ice cream, a candy bar and a can of soda.