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Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Before being put to death for sexually assaulting and killing a Florida woman in 1996, death row inmate Michael Duane Zack expressed love for the governor, acceptance for his crimes and regret for not having "a second chance" to live. Zack used some of his final words to tell Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state clemency panel that he forgives them despite not receiving a stay of execution.
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"And, finally, to Gov. DeSantis and the Clemency Board: I love you. I forgive you. I pray for you," Zack said in his last statement, provided by the group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
His last spoken words were, "I love you all."
Zack, 54, denied his last meal but met with his wife and spiritual adviser earlier in the day, the Pensacola News Journal reported. He was put to death by lethal injection and declared dead by 6:14 p.m. local time.
DeSantis signed Zack's death warrant on Aug. 17 and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the execution.
Zack was convicted of murder for the death of Ravonne Smith during a crime spree that also claimed the life of another woman, Laura Rosillo.
"Twenty-seven years ago, I was an alcoholic and a drug addict. I did things that have hurt a lot of people -- not only the victims and their families and friends, but my own family and friends, as well," Zack said in the final statement.
"I have woken up every single day since then filled with remorse and a wish to make my time here on earth mean something more than the worst thing I ever did."
Zack said he replaced drugs and alcohol with "happiness and positive relationships" in prison, where he learned to read and write. He later met his wife, Ann-Kristin, while behind bars.
"I make no excuses. I lay no blame. But how I wish that I could have a second chance, to live out my days in prison and continue to do all I can to make a difference in this world," Zack said.
Attorneys for Zack had argued he should not face the death penalty because he suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, or FAS, which caused him to function as if he was "intellectually disabled."
The Florida Supreme Court and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also passed on stopping the execution, as well.
In its ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said there was "no real possibility" that it would expand the 2002 precedent set by Atkins vs. Virginia, which established that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, to include a FAS diagnosis.
"Zack would not succeed in having this court wholesale defer to the views of the psychiatric community on the matter of whether Atkins should be expanded to include other types of diagnoses," the court wrote.
"While he asserts that the psychiatric community now views FAS as functionally identical to intellectual disability, courts determine Eighth Amendment law, not unelected unrepresentative experts."
Smith worked as a bartender in Pensacola Beach when she was murdered on June 13, 1996, where authorities found her at her home with four stab wounds in the chest. During his arrest, Zack confessed to killing Russillo on the same day.
He met Russillo at a bar in Okaloosa County and her body was found near the beach on Okaloosa Island, beaten and strangled. Investigators found traces of Russillo's blood inside Zack's car, which he had stolen from a friend in Tallahassee.
"We acknowledge the painful truth that our brother's actions resulted in the tragic losses of Ms. Smith and Ms. Rosillo. We can empathize with the unimaginable pain experienced by their families and respect their unique feelings about this execution," his sisters said in a statement, which also referenced Zack's loss of his mother to violence when he was 11.
