• Urgent Action

Urgent Action: FLORIDA SETS ITS SIXTH EXECUTION OF THE YEAR (USA: UA 86.23)

September 26, 2023

The State of Florida is due to execute Michael Zack on 3 October 2023 for a murder committed in 1996. Twenty-seven years old at the time of the crime, he is now 54. At trial, four medical experts for the defense testified that in their opinion he had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), and severe depression. Michael Zack’s FAS diagnosis and his history of “severe cognitive and adaptive impairments” has led an expert to conclude that he “always has functioned as an individual with intellectual disability”. The US Constitution bans the execution of people with intellectual disability.

TAKE ACTION: 

  1. Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to one or both government officials listed. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.

  2. Click here to let us know the actions you took on Urgent Action 86.23. It’s important to report because we share the total number with the officials we are trying to persuade and the people we are trying to help.

    CONTACT INFORMATION:


    Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
    State of Florida The Capitol
    400 S. Monroe St. Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
    USA
    Email: https://www.flgov.com/email-the-governor/

    SAMPLE LETTER:

    Dear Governor DeSantis

    Michael Zack is due to be executed on 3 October. I am appealing for your intervention.

    International law bans the execution of people with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities. Four medical experts testified that Michael Zack had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, chronic depression, and possible brain damage. His PTSD and depression had its origins in the appalling abuse by his stepfather, and his mother’s murder when he was 11.

    I urge you also to consider what his lawyers point to as “a new definitive medical consensus that Fetal Alcohol

    Syndrome… is a uniquely [intellectual disability] ID-equivalent disorder”. A FAS expert has concluded: “In light of Mr Zack’s FAS diagnosis and… severe cognitive and adaptive impairments at all stages of his life, I have no doubt that he always has functioned as an intellectually disabled individual”.

    Please grant Michael Zack a stay of execution and ensure his death sentence is commuted.

    Yours sincerely,

    [YOUR NAME]

    ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: