Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, was convicted of the May 1994 killing of Michelle McGrath.
STARKE, Fla. — A man convicted of raping and killing a woman near a central Florida bar was executed Tuesday evening.
Thomas Lee Gudinas, aged 51, was declared dead at 6:13 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, as reported by Bryan Griffin, spokesperson for Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Gudinas was convicted of the May 1994 killing of Michelle McGrath.
At 6:00 p.m., when the execution room curtain was lifted, Gudinas was secured to a gurney with an IV inserted in his left arm. After the warden finished a call with the governor’s office, he inquired if Gudinas had any last words. While his words weren’t clear to those observing, Griffin mentioned that Gudinas expressed repentance and mentioned Jesus.
The lethal drugs were then administered; Gudinas’s eyes began to roll back, and slight chest movements were noted. Within a few minutes, he started losing color in his face and became motionless. The warden then confirmed the execution was complete, the curtain was closed, and witnesses were escorted out of the viewing area.
Gudinas was the seventh person put to death in Florida this year, with an eighth scheduled for next month. The state also executed six people in 2023, but only carried out one execution last year.
A total of 24 men have been put to death in the U.S. this year, with scheduled executions set to make 2025 the year with the most executions since 2015.
Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each. Alabama has executed three people, Oklahoma two, and Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Tennessee each have one. Mississippi is set to join the other states on Wednesday with its first execution since 2022.
Despite the increased frequency of executions this year, Department of Corrections spokesman Ted Veerman said there’s been no significant operational strain.
“Our staff are doing a fantastic job keeping up with the pace of these executions,” Veerman said hours earlier Tuesday. “And we are going through with these in a professional manner.”
McGrath was last seen at a bar called Barbarella’s shortly before 3 a.m. on May 24, 1994. Her body, showing evidence of serious trauma and sexual assault, was found several hours later in an alley next to a nearby school.
Gudinas had been at the same bar with friends the night before, but they all later testified that they had left without him. A school employee who found McGrath’s body later identified Gudinas as a man who was fleeing the area shortly beforehand. Another woman also identified Gudinas as the person who chased her to her car the previous night and threatened to assault her.
Gudinas was convicted and sentenced to death in 1995.
Attorneys for Gudinas had filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court but those were rejected.
The lawyers had argued in their state filing that evidence related to “lifelong mental illnesses” exempts Gudinas from being put to death. The Florida Supreme Court denied the appeals last week, ruling that the case law that shields intellectually disabled people from execution does not apply to individuals with other forms of mental illness or brain damage.
Separately, a federal filing argued that the governor’s unfettered discretion to sign death warrants violates death row inmates’ constitutional rights to due process and had led to an arbitrary process for determining who lives and who dies. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied Gudinas’ request for a reprieve.
Officials said Gudinas had one visitor, his mother, during the day Tuesday and did not meet with a spiritual adviser.
Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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