Latest news with #ThomasGudinas
UPI
2 days ago
- Politics
- UPI
Florida execution stay request appealed to U.S. Supreme Court
1 of 2 | Thomas Gudinas, 51, is scheduled to die by lethal injection in Florida on Tuesday after he was convicted of raping and murdering Michelle McGrath, 27, outside an Orlando nightclub in 1994. A stay of execution petition was filed last week to the U.S. Supreme Court as attorneys questioned the state's "process for determining who lives and who dies." Photo by Florida Department of Corrections June 23 (UPI) -- The scheduled execution of a Florida man on Tuesday is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court as attorneys question the state's "process for determining who lives and who dies." Thomas Gudinas, 51, is scheduled to die by lethal injection after he was convicted of murdering and raping Michelle McGrath, 27, as she left an Orlando nightclub in 1994. 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," according to the medical examiner and restated in the opinion by the Florida Supreme Court. While Gudinas' attorneys argue he should be spared because he is "severely mentally ill," they appealed last week to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution because they want Florida to release records related to Gov. Ron DeSantis' "unbridled discretion in determining who shall die and when." "Florida's governor has no criteria, procedure or guidelines in place for selecting who lives and who dies," according to the petition filed by attorney Ali Shakoor on Wednesday. DeSantis signed Gudinas' death warrant last month. "Granting the governor unfettered discretion has, in practice, led to a completely arbitrary process for determining who lives and who dies. There are no articulated limits to the executive discretion, there are no guidelines for the selection process and the entire process is cloaked in secrecy," the petition states. Shakoor has argued that there are 111 men who have been on Florida's death row longer than Gudinas. He also claims that of the 61 lawyers practicing post conviction death penalty law in Florida, the governor's focus on him "is peculiar and concerning." "It defies statistical probability for Thomas Gudinas to be Attorney Shakoor's fourth death warrant in less than one year," according to a recent editorial in The SunSentinal. If Gudinas is executed Tuesday, he would be the seventh Florida inmate put to death by lethal injection this year. While the governor's office did not comment, the state Attorney General's Office urged the Supreme Court to reject the claims, arguing Gudinas is not entitled to death warrant records. "Gudinas wants this court to order the Florida courts to release the requested records so he can then potentially challenge both the governor's selection of him for a death warrant and the broader Florida clemency structure for lacking criteria or procedures to determine whom to execute as violations of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments," according to the state's response. "While he asserts that such claims would be meritorious, the Florida Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the clemency process and the governor's absolute discretion to issue death warrants are constitutional."
The Independent
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Florida Gov. DeSantis on pace to break death penalty record with execution of mistaken-identity killer Michael Bell
When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the warrant for the state to execute convicted murderer Michael Bell, he tied the state's record for most executions within a year — with six months remaining. Bell, who was convicted of killing a Jacksonville couple in what prosecutors called a revenge killing gone wrong, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on July 15. He is expected to be the eighth person killed by the state so far this year alone. His execution will follow the state's scheduled killing of Thomas L. Gudinas on June 24. Gudinas was convicted of raping and murdering a woman in Orlando bar in 1994. Gudinas has appealed his sentence to the Supreme Court. Florida executed Anthony Wainwright on June 10, becoming the six person put to death by the state in 2024, averaging at least one killing every month since the beginning of the year. DeSantis, who briefly challenged Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president, is set to break records set by former governors Bob Graham in 1984 and Rick Scott in 2014. Florida executed 196 people within a 40-year period from 1924 through May 1964. There were no state executions in the years that followed, until after 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment. Florida had executed more than 100 people since the late 1970s. More than 283 people are imprisoned on death row in jails across the state, according to the Death Penalty Information center, a research and advocacy group. Bell publicly swore revenge for his brother Lamar's murder after a man named Theodore Wright killed him in self-defense in June 1933, according to prosecutors. In December of that year, Bell, after buying an AK-47, found Wright's car in a parking lot and waited for the owner to return. But Bell didn't realize Wright sold his car to a relative, Jimmy West, who walked to the car with Tamecka Smith and another woman. Bell then fired 12 rounds at West and Smith. He was convicted of their murders in 1995. Death row inmates can choose their method of execution by either electrocution or lethal injunction. The first person electrocuted by the state was Frank Johnson in 1924. All state executions, including use of an electric chair nicknamed 'Old Sparky,' are carried out by a civilian executioner at Florida State Prison in Raiford. Advocates against the death penalty as well as the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops have urged the governor to end what is becoming a relatively swift series of executions. 'There is a way to punish without ending another human life,' bishops conference director Michael Sheedy wrote in a recent letter to the governor. 'Life-long incarceration without the possibility of parole is a severe yet more humane punishment that ensures societal safety, allows the guilty the possibility of redemption, and offers finality to court processes,' he added. Florida lawmakers also are considering legislation to expand convictions that are eligible for execution. Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled state legislature voted during a special session to mandate the death penalty for 'unauthorized aliens' found guilty of a capital offense. The governor has also signed legislation that opens the door executions by nitrogen gas, hangings, and firing squads, adding to a list of methods that includes electrocution and lethal injunctions. House Bill 903, among other things, allows any form of execution 'not deemed unconstitutional.' If lethal injection or electrocution is found to be unconstitutional, 'then any constitutional method will be administered,' according to the bill. The law takes effect July 1. The state's expansion of state-level executions follows signals from the Trump administration to resume executions of federal death row inmates and seek the death penalty in future cases. In the final weeks of his presidency, Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of 40 people on death row in federal facilities. In an executive order, President Trump called on the Department of Justice to seek the death penalty in future cases 'for all crimes of a severity demanding its use.' Three remaining federal death row inmates include Robert Gregory Bowers, who killed 11 people in an antisemitic attack at a Pittsburgh synagogue; Dylann Roof, who killed nine African Americans during a prayer service in North Carolina; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped coordinate the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured 264 others.
CBS News
24-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Florida Gov. DeSantis signs execution order for man who raped and murdered Orlando woman in 1994
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: James Ford on Feb. 13 Edward James on March 20 Michael Tanzi on April 8 Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1 Glen Rogers on May 15 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.
