Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant on Friday for Thomas Gudinas, 51, who was convicted in the 1994 rape and murder of Michelle McGrath in downtown Orlando. Gudinas is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on June 24, 2025.
His execution could mark the seventh carried out in Florida this year, signaling a continued increase in the state’s pace of capital punishment. Currently, five men have been executed in 2025, and another inmate, Anthony Wainwright, is scheduled for execution on June 10.
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Gudinas was condemned for the brutal slaying of Michelle McGrath in May 1994. According to the 1995 sentencing order, McGrath was last seen alive around 2:45 a.m. in a nightclub courtyard and is believed to have been attacked while walking to her car. Her body was discovered around 7:30 a.m. in an alley.
Then-Circuit Judge Belvin Perry Jr., in the sentencing order posted Friday on the Florida Supreme Court website along with the death warrant, described the crime as heinous, stating McGrath “had been savagely raped and severely beaten by the defendant with a blunt instrument.”
The order further detailed that “(the victim) did not meet a swift, merciful and painless death. The defendant on that night showed a disposition to be violently destructive without scruples or restraint… Not only was she beaten in this alleyway, but the defendant barbarically raped her.”
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Gudinas was sentenced to death in June 1995 following a trial that had been relocated to Collier County.
As has been customary with other death warrants signed this year, the documents pertaining to Gudinas’ warrant were posted on the Supreme Court website without public comment from Governor DeSantis.
Florida’s rate of executions has seen a notable upturn. The state executed one inmate in 2024 and six in 2023. If both Wainwright and Gudinas are executed as scheduled, the total for 2025 would reach seven by mid-year. According to Florida Department of Corrections records, the highest number of executions in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 was eight, which occurred in both 1984 and 2014.
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The five inmates executed in Florida earlier this year are: James Ford (February 13), Edward James (March 20), Michael Tanzi (April 8), Jeffrey Hutchinson (May 1), and Glen Rogers (May 15).
Anthony Wainwright, scheduled for execution on June 10, was convicted for the 1994 kidnapping, rape, and murder of a woman taken from a Winn-Dixie supermarket parking lot in Lake City. His attorneys are currently appealing to the Florida Supreme Court to halt his execution.
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