Latest news with #ThomasLeeGudinas
Washington Post
5 hours ago
- Washington Post
Florida set to execute man convicted of raping and killing a woman outside of a bar
STARKE, Fla. — A man convicted of raping and killing a woman near a central Florida bar is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, barring a last-day reprieve. He was convicted in the May 1994 killing of Michelle McGrath.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Florida set to execute man convicted of raping and killing a woman outside of a bar
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of raping and killing a woman near a central Florida bar is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, barring a last-day reprieve. He was convicted in the May 1994 killing of Michelle McGrath. Gudinas would be 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 23 men have been executed 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 has killed 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. McGrath was last seen at a bar called Barbarella's shortly before 3 a.m. on May 24, 1994. Her body was found with evidence of serious trauma and sexual assault in an alley next to a nearby school several hours later. 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 have filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawyers argue 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. Meanwhile, a federal filing argues that the Florida governor's unfettered discretion to sign death warrants violates death row inmates' constitutional rights to due process and has led to an arbitrary process for determining who lives and who dies. The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet released its decision.
Associated Press
7 hours ago
- Associated Press
Florida set to execute man convicted of raping and killing a woman outside of a bar
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of raping and killing a woman near a central Florida bar is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, barring a last-day reprieve. He was convicted in the May 1994 killing of Michelle McGrath. Gudinas would be 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 23 men have been executed 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 has killed 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. McGrath was last seen at a bar called Barbarella's shortly before 3 a.m. on May 24, 1994. Her body was found with evidence of serious trauma and sexual assault in an alley next to a nearby school several hours later. 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 have filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawyers argue 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. Meanwhile, a federal filing argues that the Florida governor's unfettered discretion to sign death warrants violates death row inmates' constitutional rights to due process and has led to an arbitrary process for determining who lives and who dies. The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet released its decision.
The Independent
7 hours ago
- The Independent
Florida set to execute man convicted of raping and killing a woman outside of a bar
A man convicted of raping and killing a woman near a central Florida bar is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, barring a last-day reprieve. He was convicted in the May 1994 killing of Michelle McGrath. Gudinas would be 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 23 men have been executed 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 has killed 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. McGrath was last seen at a bar called Barbarella's shortly before 3 a.m. on May 24, 1994. Her body was found with evidence of serious trauma and sexual assault in an alley next to a nearby school several hours later. 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 have filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawyers argue 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. Meanwhile, a federal filing argues that the Florida governor's unfettered discretion to sign death warrants violates death row inmates' constitutional rights to due process and has led to an arbitrary process for determining who lives and who dies. The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet released its decision.
Al Arabiya
13 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
A look at the status of US executions in 2025
Twenty-three men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the US, and six other people are scheduled to be put to death in four states during the remainder of 2025. Two men in Florida and Mississippi are scheduled to be executed on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. The last person to be put to death in the US was a South Carolina man on June 13. So far this year, executions have been carried out in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Other states with scheduled executions this year are Tennessee and Texas. Ohio has postponed two executions that had been planned for later this year. All of 2024 saw twenty-five executions, matching the number for 2018. Those were the highest totals since twenty-eight executions in 2015. Here's a look at recent executions and those scheduled for the rest of the year, by state: Florida: Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, is set to die by lethal injection on Tuesday. Gudinas was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for raping and killing Michelle McGrath near a bar. He would be the seventh person to be executed in Florida this year. Michael B. Bell, 54, is scheduled to be executed on July 15 for fatally shooting a man and woman outside a Jacksonville bar as part of an attempted revenge killing. Bell was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death for the murders of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith. Bell's death warrant was the eighth signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis this year. Mississippi: Mississippi's longest-serving death row inmate is set to be executed on Wednesday. Richard Gerald Jordan, 78, was sentenced to death in 1976 for kidnapping and killing a woman in a forest. Jordan has filed multiple death sentence appeals, which have been denied. Mississippi allows death sentences to be carried out using lethal injection, nitrogen gas, electrocution, or firing squad. Tennessee: Byron Black, 69, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on August 5. Black was convicted in 1989 of three counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two daughters in Nashville. Harold Nichols, 64, is also scheduled to die by lethal injection on December 11. Nichols was convicted of rape and first-degree felony murder in the 1988 death of Karen Pulley in Hamilton County. Texas: Blaine Milam, 35, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on September 25. Milam was convicted of killing his girlfriend's thirteen-month-old daughter during what the couple had said was part of an exorcism in Rusk County in East Texas in December 2008. Milam's girlfriend, Jesseca Carson, was also convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Ohio: Ohio had two executions set for later this year, with Timothy Coleman scheduled to die on October 30 and Kareem Jackson scheduled to be executed on December 10. Those have been postponed into 2028. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has said that he does not anticipate any further executions will happen during his term, which runs through 2026.
