Michael Zack Executed For 2 Florida Murders

Michael Zack was executed by the State of Florida for two murders

According to court documents Michael Zack would sexually assault and murder Laura Rosillo. A month later he would sexually assault and murder Ravonne Kennedy Smith

Michael Zack would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Ravonne Smith and sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Laura Rosillo

Michael Zack would be executed by lethal injection on October 3 2023

Michael Zack Photos

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Michael Zack Case

On June 25, 1996, Michael Zack was indicted for the sexual assault, robbery, and first-degree murder of Ravonne Smith. We described the facts of the case on direct appeal as follows:

Although the murder of Smith took place on June 13, 1996, the chain of events which culminated in this murder began on June 4, 1996, when Edith Pope (Pope), a bartender in Tallahassee, lent her car to Zack. In the weeks prior, Zack had come to Pope’s bar on a regular basis. He generally nursed one or two beers and talked with Pope; she never saw him intoxicated. He told her that he had witnessed his sister murder his mother with an axe. As a result, Pope felt sorry for Zack, and she began to give him odd jobs around the bar. When Zack’s girlfriend called the bar on June 4 to advise him that he was being evicted from her apartment, Pope lent Zack her red Honda automobile to pick up his belongings. Zack never returned.

From Tallahassee, Zack drove to Panama City where he met Bobby Chandler (Chandler) at a local pub. Over the next several days, Zack frequented the pub daily and befriended Chandler. Chandler, who owned a construction subcontracting business, hired Zack to work in his construction business. When Chandler discovered that Zack was living out of a car (the red Honda), he invited Zack to live with him temporarily. On the second night at Chandler’s, Zack woke up screaming following a nightmare. Chandler heard Zack groan words which sounded like “stop” or “don’t.” Although Chandler questioned him, Zack would not discuss the nightmare. Two nights later, on June 11, 1996, Zack left Chandler’s during the night, stealing a rifle, a handgun, and forty-two dollars from Chandler’s wallet. Zack drove to Niceville, and on the morning of June 12, 1996, pawned the guns for $225

From Niceville, Michael Zack traveled to Okaloosa County and stopped at yet another bar. At this bar, Zack was sitting alone drinking a beer when he was approached by Laura Rosillo (Rosillo). The two left the bar in the red Honda and drove to the beach, reportedly to use drugs Zack said he possessed. Once on the beach, Zack attacked Rosillo and beat her while they were still in the Honda. He then pulled Rosillo from the car and beat her head against one of the tires. Rosillo’s tube top was torn and hanging off her hips. Her spandex pants were pulled down around her right ankle. The evidence suggests she was sexually assaulted; however, the sperm found in Rosillo’s body could not be matched to Zack. He then strangled her, dragged her body behind a sand dune, kicked dirt over her face, and departed.

Michael Zack’s next stop on this crime-riddled journey was Dirty Joe’s bar located near the beach in Pensacola. He arrived there on the afternoon of June 13, 1996, and met the decedent, Ravonne Smith. Throughout the afternoon, Smith, a bar employee, and Zack sat together in the bar talking and playing pool or darts. The bar was not very busy, so Smith spent most of her time with Zack. Both bar employees and patrons testified that Zack did not ingest any significant amount of alcohol and that he did not appear to be intoxicated. In the late afternoon, Smith contacted her friend Russell Williams (Williams) and invited him to the bar because she was lonely. Williams arrived at the bar around 5:30 p.m. Prior to leaving the bar around 7 p.m., Smith called her live-in boyfriend, Danny Schaffer, and told him she was working late. Smith, Williams, and Zack then left the bar and drove to the beach where they shared a marijuana cigarette supplied by Zack. Afterwards, they returned to the bar and Williams departed. Zack and Smith left the bar together sometime around 8 p.m. and eventually arrived at the house Smith shared with her boyfriend.

Forensic evidence indicates that immediately upon entering the house Michael Zack hit Smith with a beer bottle causing shards of glass and blood to spray onto the living room love seat and two drops of blood to spray onto the interior doorframe. Zack pursued Smith down the hall to the master bedroom leaving a trail of blood. Once in the bedroom Zack sexually assaulted Smith as she lay bleeding on the bed. Following the attack Smith managed to escape to the empty guest bedroom across the hall. Zack pursued her and beat her head against the bedroom’s wooden floor. Once he incapacitated Smith, Zack went to the kitchen where he got an oyster knife. He returned to the guest bedroom where Smith lay and stabbed her in the chest four times with the knife. The four wounds were close together in the center of Smith’s chest. Zack went back to the kitchen, cleaned the knife, put it away, and washed the blood from his hands. He then went back to the master bedroom, placed Smith’s bloody shirt and shorts in her dresser drawer, stole a television, a VCR, and Smith’s purse, and placed the stolen items in Smith’s car.

During the night, Michael Zack drove Smith’s car to the area where the red Honda was parked. He removed the license plate and several personal items from the Honda then moved it to a nearby lot. Zack returned to Panama City in Smith’s car and attempted to pawn the television and VCR. Suspecting the merchandise was stolen, the shop owners asked for identification and told Zack they had to check on the merchandise. Zack fled the store and abandoned Smith’s car behind a local restaurant. Zack was apprehended after he had spent several days hiding in an empty house.

After he was arrested, Michael Zack confessed to the Smith murder and to the Pope and Chandler thefts. Zack claimed he and Smith had consensual sex and that she thereafter made a comment regarding his mother’s murder. The comment enraged him, and he attacked her. Zack contended the fight began in the hallway, not immediately upon entering the house. He said he grabbed a knife in self-defense, believing Smith left the master bedroom to get a gun from the guest bedroom.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-supreme-court/1864577.html

Michael Zack Execution

A man who killed two women after meeting them a day apart in north Florida bars in 1996 was put to death Tuesday evening.

Michael Zack III, 54, was pronounced dead minutes after 6:14 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke.

The execution started promptly at 6 p.m. Zack was asked if he had any last words, and he answered, “Yes sir.” He then lifted his head to look at the witnesses and said, “I love you all.”

e was executed for the murder of Ravonne Smith, a bar employee he befriended and later beat and stabbed with an oyster knife in June 1996. He also was convicted and separately sentenced to life in prison for murdering Laura Rosillo, who he met at another Florida Panhandle bar.

Zack’s nine-day crime run that year began in Tallahassee, the state capital, where he was a regular at a bar. When Zack’s girlfriend called and said he was being evicted, the bartender offered to loan him her pickup truck. Zack left with it and never returned, according to court records.

Zack drove to a bar in Niceville in the Florida Panhandle, where he befriended a construction company owner. The man learned Zack was living in the pickup truck and offered to let him stay at his home. Zack later stole two guns and $42. He pawned the guns, according to court records.

At yet another bar, he met Rosillo and invited her to the beach to do drugs. He then beat her, dragged her partially clothed into the dunes, strangled her and kicked sand over her face, according to court records. The next day he went to a Pensacola bar, where he met Smith. The two went to the beach to smoke marijuana and later she took him to the home she shared with her boyfriend.

At the home, Zack smashed her over the head with a bottle, slammed her head into the floor, raped her and stabbed her four times in the center of the chest with the oyster knife, court records show. He then stole the woman’s television, VCR and purse and tried to pawn the electronics. The pawn shop suspected the items were stolen and Zack fled and hid in an empty house for two days before he was arrested, according to court records.

Michael Zack, now 54, admitted to killing Smith. He said he became enraged and beat her when she made a comment about his mother’s murder, which his sister committed. He also said he thought Smith was going to another room to get a gun when he stabbed her in self defense.

Michael Zack’s lawyers had sought to stop the execution, arguing that he was a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder. On Monday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Zack’s appeal for a stay of execution without comment.

Michael Zack’s execution was the eighth under Gov. Ron DeSantis since 2019 and the sixth this year after no executions were carried out from 2020 to 2022. DeSantis has made tougher, more far-reaching death penalty laws an issue in his presidential campaign.

https://apnews.com/article/florida-execution-women-murdered-f3c127dbe11512bd4cd5c9ed6860d16c

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Raymond Clark Executed For David Drake Murder

Raymond Clark was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of David Drake

According to court documents Raymond Clark and an accomplice would kidnap David Drake. The victim was driven to a remote location where he was forced to write a check before he was fatally shot

Raymond Clark would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Raymond Clark would be executed by way of the electric chair on November 19 1990

Raymond Clark Case

A convicted murderer, Raymond Robert Clark, was executed today in Florida’s electric chair.

Mr. Clark, 49 years old, died at 7:07 A.M. at the Florida State Prison here.

Among the two dozen witnesses was Gregory Drake, 38, the son of Mr. Clark’s victim, David Drake. Gov. Bob Martinez had asked that Mr. Drake be allowed to witness the execution, said Bob Macmaster, a Department of Corrections spokesman.

In 1977 Mr. Clark and a teen-age companion kidnapped Mr. Drake’s father and forced him to write a check for $5,000 payable to cash. Mr. Clark then shot him to death.

Asked about Mr. Clark last week, David Drake’s widow, Donna, said: “I want him executed. He’s ruined my life. He’s ruined my son’s life.”

Mr. Clark exhausted his legal appeals on Sunday when the Supreme Court voted 8 to 1 to reject two emergency requests for a delay in the execution. The dissenter was Justice Thurgood Marshall, who opposes the death penalty in all circumstances.

The appeals were based on changes in the law on capital punishment since Mr. Clark was sentenced. 25th Execution in Florida

Mr. Clark was the fourth Florida inmate to be put to death this year and the 25th to die since the state resumed executions in 1979. In all, 142 people have been killed nationwide since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Florida has had more executions than any other state except Texas.

David Drake, a scrapyard owner, was abducted from the parking lot of a St. Petersburg bank on April 27, 1977, and driven to a secluded spot, where Mr. Clark shot him twice in the head.

When Mr. Clark and his companion were unable to cash the check, they telephoned Gregory Drake and demanded $10,000 for the safe return of his father, who was already dead

The police traced later calls and arrested Mr. Clark’s 16-year-old companion, Ty Johnston, who later pleaded guilty to murder and testified against Mr. Clark. He was paroled in 1987 after serving nine years of a 25-year sentence.

At the time he killed Mr. Drake, Mr. Clark was on parole from California for the killing of a 14-year-old boy.

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James Hamblen Executed For Laureen Edwards Murder

James Hamblen was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of Laureen Jean Edwards

According to court documents James Hamblen would rob a lingerie store that was owned by Laureen Jean Edwards. Hamblen believed that Laureen Jean Edwards had hit a silent alarm and would fatally shoot the woman. Hamblen would later confess to the murder of girlfriend Debbie Abbott

James Hamblen would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

James Hamblen would be executed via the electric chair on September 21 1990

James Hamblen Case

James William Hamblen, who once said he could ‘hardly wait to sit in ‘Old Sparky,” was executed in the electric chair Friday for the 1984 murder of a lingerie shop owner during a robbery.

Hamblen, 61, wearing dark blue pants and a light blue shirt, was strapped into the electric chair at 7 a.m. in the Florida State Prison and declared dead 12 minutes later

Hamblen’s last words were directed at one of his attorneys, Judy Dougherty, who claimed Hamblen had been plagued by mental illness.

‘Judy, can you hear me?’ he said. ‘You know I had a few choice comments I was going to make but I blew it. I had one of those revelations so I would address all my comments to you. You know the trouble I had with that four-letter ‘L’ word. So like George (Bush), ‘Read my lips.”

He then mouthed ‘I love you.’

‘The rest of that revelation told me just to keep my mouth shut and not give anybody anything,’ Hamblen said. ‘I blew it, I know. You’re terrific.’

He then said ‘OK’ to his executioners, who placed the chair’s headpiece on him. Before his last words, Hamblen smiled and stuck his tongue out at the three dozen witnesses while he was being strapped to the chair.

The Supreme Court had refused to block Hamblen’s execution after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected his attorney’s argument that he should not be executed because he was mentally ill when he pleaded guilty to the killing.

Hamblen was the 140th person executed in the United States and the 24th in Florida since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976. There are 319 men currently awaiting execution in Florida and four women.

Corrections Department spokesman Bob Macmaster said Hamblen’s last wish was that ‘the husband of the victim be able to sit somewhere other than across the pasture (in front of the prison).’

‘They are good people and they deserve better than this,’ Macmaster said, quoting Hamblen

The husband of Lauren Jean Edwards sat in a car parked across the street from the prison during the execution but did not talk with reporters.

Macmaster said Hamblen was laughing and joking with prison guards about an hour before the execution. His last meal was steak, eggs, french fries, toast and tomato juice, which he ate about 4:30 a.m.

Hamblen was condemned for killing Edwards April 24, 1984, during a robbery at the ladies’ boutique she ran in Jacksonville. Court records say he forced her into a changing room and shot her in the head after seeing her trip a silent alarm.

James Hamblen had driven to Florida from Texas after murdering his ex- girlfriend there, court records say.

‘He was mentally ill all his life,’ Dougherty said following the execution. ‘Florida law holds that seriously mentally ill persons like Mr. Hamblen should not be executed. Yet no court ever heard the evidence. He was a veteran who served honorably in time of war (the Korean War). He deserved better.’

One of Hamblen’s other attorneys, Susan Carey, said, ‘He had a lot of regrets about things that had happened to him in his life and the pain he caused

During an August 1989 newspaper interview, Hamblen felt depressed and said, ‘I can’t hardly wait to sit in ‘Old Sparky.’ I’m curious about it.’ He also said he thought the idea of execution was ‘spiffy.’

James Hamblen also denied that he was insane.

‘I might be wacko … but within the legal. I’m completely confident I know what I am doing.’

James Hamblen was one of three prisoners whose executions were stayed earlier this summer while the courts considered whether the electric chair was malfunctioning.

Defense lawyers claimed the state risked subjecting inmates to a torturous death, violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, after flames and sparks shot out of the headpiece during the May execution of Jesse Tafero.

The state tested the chair and determined it to be working properly

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/09/21/Convicted-killer-who-yearned-for-Old-Sparky-executed/7788653889600/

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Anthony Bertolotti Executed For Carol Miller Ward Murder

Anthony Bertolotti was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of Carol Miller Ward

According to court documents Carol Miller Ward would be working in her yard when Anthony Bertolotti asked to use her phone. Once inside of the home Anthony would sexually assault and murder the woman

Anthony Bertolotti would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Anthony Bertolotti would be executed by way of the electric chair on July 27 1990

Anthony Bertolotti Photos

Anthony Bertolotti florida

Anthony Bertolotti Case

A 38-year-old man convicted of stabbing, raping and robbing a woman in 1983 was executed today after the United States Supreme Court rejected his assertions that Florida’s electric chair was not working properly.

The execution of Anthony Bertolotti was carried out at 7:07 P.M., apparently without problems, the Governor’s office said.

The Supreme Court, agreeing with lower courts that the chair was working properly, rejected Mr. Bertolotti’s last appeal about 30 minutes before the execution.

Voltage Is Found Sufficient

The Court upheld a ruling earlier in the day by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, concurring with a decision earlier this week by an Orlando judge that the chair’s 2,000 volts ”are sufficient to cause painless termination of life.’

The Federal court delayed executions for five other Florida inmates because of assertions that the chair had malfunctioned, resulting in a torturous death for a convict.

Their contentions stemmed from the botched execution May 4 of Jesse Tafero in which fire, smoke and sparks had spewed from his head and in which three surges of power had to be used before he was declared dead.

Chair Was Tested

Earlier this week, prison officials and an Auburn University expert conducted a test of the chair and concluded that it was working properly. They said a synthetic sponge, used for the first time in the Tafero execution, had caused flames to rise from his head.

Mr. Bertolotti was sentenced to die for the Sept. 27, 1983, murder of Carol Ward. She was working in her yard in Orange County when Mr. Bertolotti approached her and asked to use the telephone, and she let him in.

He found a knife and robbed her of $30, then became angry and stabbed her repeatedly until the knife broke. He found another knife and stabbed her until she died. Ms. Ward also was raped. Mr. Bertolotti was convicted March 31, 1984

He was the 23d convict to die in the chair since capital punishment was resumed in Florida in 1979.

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Jesse Tafero Executed For Florida Officers Murder

Jesse Tafero was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of Florida Highway Patrol officer Phillip Black

According to court documents Officer Phillip Black along with a visiting Ontario Provincial Police Officer Donald Irwin would come across a car with Jesse Tafero sleeping inside along with his wife and child. When Tafero came out of the car he would fatally shoot both men

Jesse Tafero would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Jesse Tafero would be executed by way of the electric chair on May 4 1990

Jesse Tafero Photos

Jesse Tafero – Florida

Jesse Tafero Case

A faulty electric chair component shot out flames around convicted killer Jesse Tafero’s head as he was executed early Friday for the 1976 slayings of two police officers at a highway rest stop.

Three surges of electricity were sent through Tafero’s body, the first at 7:07 a.m. and the last at about 7:10 a.m. Each time, flame erupted from a headpiece and a cloud of smoke rose to the ceiling

Ashes fell to the prisoner’s shirt as he was pronounced dead at 7:13 a.m.

A replacement sponge in the headpiece caused the flames, said Florida State Prison spokesman Bob Macmaster, who added he had never before seen flames during an electrocution.

‘It appears unusual. That amount of smoke is unusual,’ Macmaster said.

Florida’s electric chair is nicknamed Ol’ Sparky.

Gov. Bob Martinez ordered the Department of Corrections to provide him with a full report of the incident, saying he wants to ensure that similar problems do not occur in the future

After the first two jolts, Tafero’s chest moved, and he appeared to continue breathing. But Macmaster said that prison physician Dr. Frank Kilgo believed Tafero was dead within seconds of the first jolt and said there was no indication he felt pain.

‘It was not (human) tissue that was burning. It was the headpiece,’ Macmaster said. ‘There was some arcing in the headpiece itself. We believe he was dead after the first few seconds. I believe he was unconscious from the moment (electricity) hit him.’

Attorney Mark Olive of Atlanta, who unsuccessfully fought to save Tafero from the chair, asked Martinez to suspend further death sentences.

‘Death warrants in this state tend to come out of the governor’s office like junk mail,’ Olive said. ‘If they cannot execute correctly, they can’t execute at all.’

Olive called for an inquiry by an outside panel to determine if defects in the chair inflicted pain on Tefero. Until such an inquiry is concluded, Olive said, Martinez should suspend all executions.

In Florida executions, electricity passes from a wire into a sponge filled with saline solution that is placed directly on the head, Macmaster said. The old sponge had been used in 21 executions before it was replaced for the Tafero execution

‘It was the sponge. They had put the first new sponge in there since 1979. It was not an appropriate sponge,’ he said. ‘It was the sponge causing the fire.’

Tafero, 43, with his head shaven and his eyes covered by a black mask, smiled briefly as he was strapped into the electric chair at Florida State Prison and had electrodes attached to his head and lower right leg.

Tafero, whose final request for a stay late Thursday was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court, devoted his last words to criticizing the system that led to his death.

‘Well, I’d like to say that the death penalty as applied in the state is very arbitrary and capricious,’ Tafero said. ‘For instance, this morning I filed two motions in court. It seems the federal court judge and circuit court judge have just ignored my petitions. They were not heard by any court in the state of Florida.

‘I think it’s very unfair. I think it’s time that everyone woke up to see that the same laws that can go against crime can go against you tomorrow.’

Tafero was the 22nd person executed in Florida and the nation’s 124th since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976. His execution came exactly one year after Florida’s last execution, when Aubrey Adams was put to death.

Some 39 witnesses, including nine journalists and several law enforcement officers, were present when Jesse Tafero died. No relatives were present.

About a dozen anti-death penalty protesters held a candle-light vigil at the prison gates. A handful of capital punishment supporters also were at the prison.

Jesse Tafero ate about half of his last meal of scrambled eggs, fried pepperoni, toasted Italian bread, two tomatoes, steamed broccoli, asparagus tips, fresh strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream, whole milk and hot tea, Macmaster said.

At about 3 a.m. Friday, he spoke by telephone to his girlfriend, Sonia Jacobs, one of his co-defendants, who is serving a life term at a women’s prison in Broward County for the same crime. He also spoke by telephone to his and Jacobs’ daughter, Christina Tafero, 15, who lives with guardians in New York.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta and U.S. District Judge Lenore Nesbitt refused earlier Thursday to grant Tafero a stay, rejecting claims that mitigating circumstances were not considered by the trial jury that recommended the death penalty.

Jesse Tafero was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, robbery and kidnapping in the Feb. 20, 1976, shooting deaths of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Philip Black and Canadian Constable Donald Irwin, who were killed at an Interstate 95 rest stop in south Florida.

Irwin, a friend of Black’s, was riding with the Florida officer to observe American law enforcement procedures.

Jesse Tafero, Jacobs, her two children and a man named Walter Rhodes were asleep in a car at the rest stop when Black and Irwin approached to investigate.

Black spotted a semi-automatic handgun, confiscated it and prepared to arrest Rhodes for a weapons violation, but a fight broke out, and Black and Irwin were killed.

Department of Corrections records indicate both Jacobs and Tafero fired at the officers. Jacobs was convicted of first-degree murder and Rhodes is serving a 25-year sentence for second-degree murder.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/05/04/Convicted-cop-killer-executed/2009641793600/

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