Man convicted in 1994 rape and murder of woman executed in Florida – NBC 6 South Florida

Hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final appeal, Thomas Gudinas was executed Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison in the May 1994 murder of a woman in downtown Orlando.

Gudinas, 51, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. and became the seventh Florida inmate executed this year.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 23 signed a death warrant for Gudinas in the murder of Michelle McGrath, who was attacked after she left a nightclub and headed toward her car. Her body was found the next morning in an alley.

McGrath had been sexually battered, and a Florida Supreme Court opinion last week said a medical examiner determined the “cause of death was a brain hemorrhage resulting from blunt force injuries to her head, probably inflicted by a stomping type blow from a boot.”

Strapped to a gurney Tuesday evening in the execution chamber, Gudinas lifted his head at least twice and looked through a window at a viewing room, where 19 witnesses, along with reporters and Department of Corrections officials, watched. He made a last statement, but it was inaudible in the viewing room.

Gudinas’ chest could be seen palpitating shortly after the lethal injection procedure started, a common sight in executions. Within minutes, Gudinas did not have any visible movement.

Gudinas woke at 4:45 a.m. Tuesday and had a last meal of pepperoni pizza, french fries and soda, said Ted Veerman, communications director for the Florida Department of Corrections. Gudinas’ mother visited him.

After the death warrant was signed last month, Gudinas’ attorneys launched efforts to try to prevent the execution. At the Florida Supreme Court, for example, they argued that Gudinas should be spared because he was “severely mentally ill.”

The Florida Supreme Court rejected the arguments in last week’s opinion, spurring a final petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. That petition raised questions about what an attorney for Gudinas called DeSantis’ “unbridled discretion in determining who shall die and when.”

The petition argued, in part, that the state should turn over records that would explain DeSantis’ decision to sign a death warrant for Gudinas. It contended that the state needs to have criteria for determining which inmates are put to death.

But the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the petition and refused to grant a stay of execution. As is common, the court did not explain its decision.

Gudinas’ execution continued what appears to be a record pace for Florida putting inmates to death this year. DeSantis also has signed a death warrant for Michael Bernard Bell, 54, who was convicted of murdering two people in 1993 in Duval County. Bell’s execution is scheduled July 15.

An attorney for Bell appealed to the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday after a Duval County circuit judge rejected arguments aimed at preventing the execution.

If the Bell execution is carried out, it would match the most executions in a year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 after a U.S. Supreme Court decision had halted executions. Florida executed eight inmates in 1984 and 2014, according to information on the Department of Corrections website.

The state this year also executed Anthony Wainwright on June 10; Glen Rogers on May 15; Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1; Michael Tanzi on April 8; Edward James on March 20; and James Ford on Feb. 13.

Florida put to death one inmate in 2024 and six in 2023. It did not execute anyone in 2020, 2021 and 2022, according to the Department of Corrections website.