June 17, 2025, the Florida Supreme Court swiftly and decisively upheld the lower court’s decision to deny postconviction relief to death row inmate Thomas Lee Gudinas, who is set to be put to death. On June 24, 2025, he will be put to death by lethal injection after the Court rejected his request for a stay of execution.
On May 23, Governor Ron DeSantis approved the death sentence for Gudinas, 50, who was found guilty of Michelle McGrath’s murder in May 1994. About 2:45 a.m., McGrath was last seen alive in the courtyard of a nightclub after spending the night out in downtown Orlando.
A 1995 sentence order said that she was thought to have been attacked while she was walking to her car in a parking lot. She was “savagely r-ped and severely beaten by the defendant with a blunt instrument,” according to the sentence order written by then-Circuit Judge Belvin Perry Jr. Her body was discovered in an alley at around 7:30 a.m.
In his third consecutive motion for postconviction relief, Gudinas’s appeal brought up issues pertaining to his mental health, the constitutionality of Florida’s “conformity clause” on harsh and unusual punishment, and the employment of procedural obstacles in his case. He also asked the Executive Office of the Governor for public records.
All of his arguments were dismissed in the high court’s unanimous ruling. Given that evidence of his mental condition and possible brain problems had been given and discussed in earlier hearings spanning decades, the Court determined that his assertions of recently discovered information indicating “brain impairment” were premature and procedurally precluded.
According to the ruling, Gudinas’s purported “life-long” disabilities had been recognized for “at least twenty-five or thirty years, if not longer.”
Thomas Lee Gudinas, who was convicted of raping and killing a woman near a Central Florida bar in 1994, has been scheduled for execution in Florida on June 24 under a death warrant signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the seventh this year. https://t.co/CN2dbcBd4Y
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) May 25, 2025
In addition, the Court restated its position that those with other mental diseases or those who were older than eighteen at the time of their offense are not covered by the protections against execution granted to juvenile criminals (Roper v. Simmons) and intellectually challenged people (Atkins v. Virginia). When he killed the victim, he was twenty years old.
The Court adamantly declared that the Eighth Amendment jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court, which serves as both “the floor and the ceiling” for similar safeguards in Florida, bound its interpretation of the state’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Additionally rejected as procedurally prohibited and without merit was Gudinas’s appeal to Florida’s “conformity clause,” which he claimed violated his rights under the Eighth Amendment and due process. The Court upheld states’ exemption from extending federal constitutional guarantees.
EXECUTION ALERT –
Stay the Execution of #ThomasGudinas ( See my Twitter)
Sign petitions.https://t.co/3LAmOXteKdhttps://t.co/5rxNyraker
Contact Governor DeSantis
Send a letter, here: https://t.co/LsKjx4i9g2
Execution : June 24, 2025@GovRonDeSantis pic.twitter.com/VF0kjypFbc
— Attika Ghalem (@Attika_t) June 19, 2025
Lastly, the Executive Office of the Governor’s request for public records was turned down. According to Florida legislation and the Rules of Executive Clemency, the Court determined that the requested clemency process records were confidential and exempt from publication.
Additionally, considering previous decisions upholding the Governor’s complete authority in choosing death warrants and clemency, it determined that the requests were excessively broad, unreasonably burdensome, and not rationally calculated to result in a colorable claim for relief.
Gudinas would be the seventh prisoner put to death in Florida this year. This comes after Anthony Wainwright was put to death Tuesday night for a 1994 murder in Lake City. With the mandate scheduled to be issued immediately and no motion for rehearing to be heard, it looks like Thomas Lee Gudinas will be executed on Tuesday.
If you or someone you know is experiencing distress, help is available. Contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit RAINN.org.
