Continuing to accelerate the pace of executions in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a death warrant for a man convicted in the 1994 rape and murder of a woman in downtown Orlando.
The warrant was issued for Thomas Gudinas, 51, who is scheduled to be executed on June 24. If carried out, it would mark the seventh execution by lethal injection in Florida this year. Five inmates have already been put to death, and a sixth, Anthony Wainwright, is scheduled for execution on June 10.
Orlando woman raped and murdered after night out in 1994
Gudinas was convicted of murdering Michelle McGrath in May 1994. McGrath had been out for a night of entertainment and was last seen alive around 2:45 a.m. in the courtyard of a downtown Orlando nightclub. Authorities believe she was attacked while walking to her car in a nearby parking lot, according to a 1995 sentencing order.
Her body was discovered around 7:30 a.m. in an alley. She had been “savagely raped and severely beaten by the defendant with a blunt instrument,” then-Circuit Judge Belvin Perry Jr. wrote in the sentencing order, which was posted Friday on the Florida Supreme Court website along with the death warrant and other related documents.
“The evidence quite clearly establishes that (the victim) did not meet a swift, merciful and painless death,” Perry wrote. “The defendant on that night showed a disposition to be violently destructive without scruples or restraint. (The victim) was beaten and taken into an alleyway where she spent her last minutes on this earth. Not only was she beaten in this alleyway, but the defendant barbarically raped her.”
Gudinas was sentenced to death in June 1995, after the trial was moved to Collier County.
DeSantis continues to ramp up Florida executions in 2025
As with other death warrants DeSantis has signed this year, Friday’s action came without public comment from the governor’s office.
Florida has significantly ramped up executions under DeSantis. In 2023, six inmates were executed. Only one was put to death in 2024 prior to this year’s surge.
The state’s record for executions in a single year is eight, set in both 1984 and 2014, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Florida’s recent executions under Gov. DeSantis
This year, Florida has executed:
Another execution scheduled: Anthony Wainwright case
Wainwright, whose execution is scheduled for June 10, was convicted of kidnapping a woman from a Winn-Dixie parking lot in Lake City in 1994, then raping and murdering her in rural Hamilton County.
His attorneys have filed motions with the Florida Supreme Court seeking to halt the execution.
