STARKE, Fla. — Thomas Gudinas, convicted within the brutal 1994 homicide of Michelle McGrath in downtown Orlando, was executed Tuesday night at Florida State Jail following a last rejection by the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.
Gudinas, 51, was pronounced lifeless at 6:13 p.m. after receiving a deadly injection. He grew to become the seventh particular person executed in Florida this yr, because the state continues what may develop into its highest variety of executions in a single yr for the reason that demise penalty was reinstated in 1976.
McGrath was attacked after leaving a nightclub in Might 1994. Her physique was found the next morning in an alleyway. A health worker concluded she had been sexually assaulted and died from a mind hemorrhage brought on by blunt pressure trauma, believed to be from a stomping blow with a boot.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Gudinas’ demise warrant on Might 23. Within the days main as much as the execution, Gudinas’ attorneys sought to halt the method, arguing he suffered from extreme psychological sickness. The Florida Supreme Courtroom rejected these claims final week, prompting a last enchantment to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.
That enchantment questioned the dearth of transparency within the governor’s resolution to signal demise warrants, calling it “unbridled discretion” and demanding the state disclose the standards used to find out which inmates are chosen for execution. The excessive courtroom denied the petition with out touch upon Tuesday.
Gudinas spent his last day receiving a go to from his mom and consuming a final meal of pepperoni pizza, french fries, and soda, in response to the Florida Division of Corrections. He was woke up at 4:45 a.m.
Witnesses on the execution stated Gudinas lifted his head a minimum of twice from the gurney to look into the viewing room, which held 19 folks together with reporters and state officers. He gave a last assertion, but it surely was inaudible. His chest visibly moved shortly after the injection started earlier than going nonetheless inside minutes.
Florida has already executed six different inmates this yr: Anthony Wainwright, Glen Rogers, Jeffrey Hutchinson, Michael Tanzi, Edward James, and James Ford. The following execution, of Michael Bernard Bell, is scheduled for July 15. Bell was convicted in a 1993 double homicide in Duval County, and his attorneys filed an enchantment Tuesday with the Florida Supreme Courtroom.
If carried out, Bell’s execution would mark the eighth in 2025, tying the state’s document for essentially the most executions in a single yr — a milestone beforehand reached in 1984 and 2014. Florida executed one particular person in 2024, six in 2023, and none from 2020 by 2022.
