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FLORIDA - A Florida inmate was executed Tuesday evening following the denial of his final appeal in the decades old murder case.
Thomas Lee Gudinas was convicted of raping and killing 27-year-old Michelle McGrath in May 1994 after she left a nightclub in Orlando.
Her body was discovered in an alley early the next morning.
A medical examiner ruled the cause of death a brain hemorrhage caused by blunt force trauma likely from stomping.
Gudinas was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death.
At 6:13 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke, Gudinas was pronounced dead by lethal injection.
Witnesses noted he lifted his head, made an inaudible final statement, and chest movements were visible before stillness settled in.
His only visitor that day was his mother.
Defense attorneys had argued he was severely mentally ill and that the governor’s authority to issue death warrants was arbitrary and lacked clear criteria.
The Florida Supreme Court rejected mental illness claims, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene without explanation.
Gudinas is the seventh inmate executed in Florida this year and among 24 executed nationally in 2025, a level of activity not seen since 2015.
Officials say the execution pace is not overtaxing staff.
Florida leads all states in executions this year, followed by Texas and South Carolina.
Next month Florida plans another execution and Mississippi is preparing one as well, the first in that state since 2022.