Michael Duane Zack III (December 14, 1968 – October 3, 2023) was a resident of Tallahassee who had murdered two women he met at beach bars in Florida Panhandle in June 1996.

Prior to this date, Zack, who was recently out of prison, approached a bartender named Edith Pope, who drank with him and heard his story of witnessing his mother being killed by his sister.

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).

[4][2] After stealing the truck, Zack drove to a bar in Niceville, where he befriended a construction company owner named Bobby Chandler.

However, as the pawn shop suspected that the items were stolen, Zack fled and went into hiding at an empty house in Panama City.

[12] 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.

[13] 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.

[2] After hearing the case for a week, on September 15, 1997, the jury returned with guilty verdicts on all three counts, one of murder, one of firearm robbery and one of rape.

[14] 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.

[15][2] On December 6, 1997, more than a month after he was condemned to death row, Zack was put on trial for the second charge of murdering Laurie Russillo.

[23] 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.

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.

[41] 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.