Michael Duane Zack III

Michael Duane Zack III (December 14, 1968 – October 3, 2023) was a resident of Tallahassee who murdered two women he met at beach bars in Florida Panhandle in June 1996. Zack targeted Laurie Russillo at Okaloosa Island, and he strangled her to death before leaving her body on the beach. Within a day after murdering Russillo, Zack met his second victim Ravonne Smith at Pensacola Beach, and after entering her home, he sexually assaulted Smith and then fatally stabbed her. Zack was arrested two days later and charged for the murders. Zack was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Russillo, but he was additionally given the death penalty for Smith's murder. Zack was executed via lethal injection on October 3, 2023, 27 years after he killed both Smith and Russillo.

Background Michael Duane Zack III was born prematurely on December 14, 1968, after his mother got into a car accident. His mother reportedly abused alcohol while she was pregnant with Zack. Zack's father, a soldier, abandoned his family; after this, his mother remarried to another soldier. However, Zack's stepfather often abused Zack and his sisters during their childhood.

Zack's stepfather would regularly punch him, electrocute him using an electric blanket, make him wear the urine-soaked sheet around his neck, and forcibly place a heated spoon on his genitals. Other instances of abuse include Zack being slammed onto the wall or kicked with boots. Zack's stepfather also tried to drown him, poison him, and run him over with a car. When Zack was 3 years old, he was hospitalized after his stepfather force-fed him alcohol and drugs. Zack's stepfather also threatened to shoot and stab him on one occasion, and he sexually abused Zack and raped his sisters. After his mother's murder, Zack was placed into foster care.

1996 North Florida murders For a span of nine days in June 1996, a month after his release from prison, Michael Zack would commit more crimes, including the murder of two women in Florida Panhandle within North Florida.

Theft of firearms and truck The events that culminated into the murders first happened on June 4, 1996. Prior to this date, Zack, who was recently released from prison, approached a bartender named Edith Pope, who drank with him and heard his story of witnessing his mother being killed by his sister. Pope took pity on the 27-year-old and allowed Zack to work at her bar. Zack's employment lasted until June 4, 1996, and when his girlfriend called and said he was being evicted, the bartender offered to loan him her pickup truck (some sources claimed it was a car). Zack drove off on the truck, but he never returned to the bar again.

Murder of Ravonne Smith Less than 24 hours after he murdered Russillo, Zack befriended and later killed 31-year-old Ravonne Kennedy Smith.

After murdering Russillo, Zack travelled to a bar at Pensacola Beach, where he first met and befriended Smith. Both of them went to the beach to smoke marijuana and after doing so, Smith allowed Zack to go back to the house where she lived together with her boyfriend. After gaining entry into Smith's home, Zack attacked Smith by smashing her head with a bottle, and slammed her head into the floor. Zack subdued Smith to the ground, and he raped her. Thereafter, Zack used an oyster knife to stab the 31-year-old victim four times in her chest. Zack was first charged on June 18, 1996, for the murder of Ravonne Smith, before he faced another murder charge for strangling Laurie Russillo.

Murder trials On September 8, 1997, Michael Zack officially stood trial for the murder of Ravonne Smith before a 12-member jury and a single judge at a Florida state court. Zack faced charges of sexual assault, robbery, and first-degree murder. For the most serious charge of murder, the potential sentence was either a death sentence or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Other than that, psychiatrists diagnosed that Zack was suffering from both fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As a result, the defence suggested that Zack was impulsive, constantly experiencing mental and emotional distress, and therefore incapable of forming the prerequisite intent for premeditated murder. However, the prosecution contended that Zack was both a calculated stalker and predator, as he committed the murders and other crimes by targeting individuals in bars, directing the court and jury's attention to his modus operandi of befriending his victims, earning their sympathy with tales of his mother's death and his abusive childhood, and then exploiting them by either robbing or sexually assaulting them, or killing them in the cases of Smith and Russillo. On October 17, 1997, by a majority decision of 11 to one, the jury recommended the death penalty for Zack, whose lawyers had earlier pushed for a life sentence by highlighting his abusive childhood and psychiatric conditions. On November 14, 1997, Zack was officially sentenced to death for murdering Ravonne Smith, after Circuit Judge Joseph Tarbuck concurred with the jury's verdict.

Death row and execution After he was given the death penalty for the murder of Ravonne Smith, Zack appealed all the way to the Florida Supreme Court, which dismissed his final plea on January 6, 2000, therefore finalizing his death sentence. In October 2005, Zack's second appeal to vacate his death sentence was dismissed. Another appeal from Zack was dismissed in 2017. Amnesty International, an international human rights group, appealed for the Florida state authorities to not execute Zack based on his mental problems and commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.

During his time on death row, Zack met his wife while in prison and he married her; he also took up reading and writing, and made several pen-pals out of people from outside the prison.

On August 17, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant of Michael Zack, scheduling him to be executed on October 3, 2023, via lethal injection. Zack's death warrant came two weeks after the execution of serial killer James Phillip Barnes, and Zack was the sixth death row inmate from Florida to have his execution scheduled in the year 2023.

After the announcement of Zack's execution date, his lawyers mounted a final round of appeals, asking the courts to reconsider the decision to put Zack to death on the grounds that fetal alcohol syndrome should exempt him from the death sentence, which was prohibited for offenders with mental or intellectual disability. In response, the prosecution brought up the Marsy's Law, a law pertaining to the victims' rights, to argue that the victims had rights to be free from unreasonable delay and prompt finality in the legal process, and rebutted the defence's arguments about fetal alcohol syndrome, stating that the law of prohibiting executions of mentally-disabled offenders did not apply for fetal alcohol syndrome cases. On September 21, 2023, the Florida Supreme Court rejected the appeal.

Despite this, Zack's lawyers remained undeterred and filed another series of appeals for Zack's execution to be staved off due to fetal alcohol syndrome, and the state continued to urge the courts to have Zack executed. On October 2, 2023, the eve of his execution, the Florida Supreme Court once again rejected Zack's appeal. Amnesty International, an international human rights group, appealed for DeSantis to spare Zack's life and urged that his death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment based on the tragic childhood and the psychiatric disorders that plagued his life.

On October 3, 2023, 27 years after the North Florida murders, 54-year-old Michael Duane Zack III was formally put to death via lethal injection at Florida State Prison. Zack, who declined a last meal, received a last visit from his wife and spiritual adviser, and when he was asked if he had any last words, Zack faced the witnesses and said that he "loved them all". He was pronounced dead at 6:14 pm, minutes after the drugs were administered to him. The family of Ravonne Smith, Zack's second victim, were present to witness the execution but they declined to speak to the media, while the family of Zack's first victim Laurie Russillo were absent, and likewise they could not be reached for comment.

Aftermath After Zack's execution, his final statement was released, and in his statement, Zack expressed remorse for murdering both Ravonne Smith and Laurie Russillo and hurting their friends and families, as well as hurting his own. He stated that he stayed away from both alcohol and drugs by building countless positive relationships in jail, and married his wife while in prison. He added that he made no excuse to absolve himself of his responsibility and hoped that he would have a second chance to live out his life in prison and make a difference in the world, and he forgave the state governor and pardons board for not granting him clemency or a stay of execution. Zack's sisters similarly told the press that they acknowledged the pain and suffering which their brother caused to the victims' families and empathized with their plights, especially since their mother had fallen victim to violence back when Zack was 11.

It was widely speculated that the accelerated pace of executions in Florida during the year of 2023 was politically motivated, since DeSantis had expressed his intention to run for nomination as a presidential candidate and possibly wanted to present himself as a "tough on crime" politician in furtherance of his agenda. Simultaneously, DeSantis had signed two landmark death penalty laws, one of which allows the death penalty for child rape where the victim did not die while another overruled the unanimity requirement for juries to send people to death row (presently in Florida, eight out of 12 jurors was the minimum number allowed to sentence a person to death). The higher rate of state executions in Florida also influenced the execution numbers in the whole of U.S., and statistics showed that there were a total of 24 executions nationwide in 2023, a sharp increase from 18 executions in 2022 the year before and contrary to the death penalty's historical decline across the US.