Starke, Fla. . to be executed Tuesday.
Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, is Scheduled to Receive Lethal Injection at Florida State Near Starke, Barring a Last-Day Reprieve. He was was convinced in the May 1994 Killing of Michelle McGrath.
Guddinas willd 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 Us 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 stats on Wednesday with its first execution since 2022.
McGrath Was Last Seen At A Bar Called Barbarella’s Shortly Before 3 Am On May 24, 1994. Her Body Was Found with Evidence of Serious Trauma and Sexual Assault in An Alley Next to Nearby School Several Hours Later.
Gudinas Had Been at the Same Bar with Friends The Night Before, Buty All Later Testified That Had Left Without Him. The school Employeee Who Found McGrath’s Body Later Identified Gudinas As a man who fieing the area shortly beforehand. Another Woman also Identified Gudinas As the person who chased her to her car the predeviated night and threatened to assault her.
Gudinas was convinced and sentenced to death in 1995.
Attorneys for Gudinas have Filed Appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court.
The Lawyers argue in their state filing that evidence related to “lifelong mental illnesses” exempts guddas from being put to death. The Florida Supreme Court Denied the Appeals Last Week, Reling That the Case Law That Shields Intellectually Disabled People From Execution Does Not Apply To Individuals with Optu Forms of Mental Illness or Brain Damage.
Meanwhile, federal Filing Airbar that the flowering government 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 US Supreme Court has not Yet Releaeded it decision.
