Tonight, We the People of the State of Florida, executed Tommy Gudinas for the 1994 murder of Michelle McGrath. Tommy’s state-sanctioned killing is Florida’s seventh execution in 2025 and marks the fastest pace for any Florida governor since 1979.
Tommy was just 20 years old when he was arrested for the murder of Ms. McGrath. Tommy was born to a teenage mother and spent the first two weeks of his life in the hospital, struggling to grow and develop, returning 6 times in the first 6 months of his life when he’d stop breathing.
And on top of his medical issues, there was the chronic abuse — Tommy was subjected to a childhood full of cruel and humiliating punishments at the hands of his father — who burned Tommy’s hand over an open flame and made Tommy stand outside wearing a sign saying he wet his bed. By the time his childhood was over, Tommy would have only a 4th grade education and been shuffled through 105 separate placements through the Division of Youth Services. 105 different places to lay his head at night.
When Tommy encountered Ms. McGrath on that Orlando street, he was self-medicating his untreated trauma and mental illness with drugs and alcohol, and he tragically took her life. We can both grieve for her innocent life lost, and recognize that killing Tommy tonight can never bring her back or heal that wound.
Indeed, many of Ms. McGrath’s loved ones chose not to attend tonight’s killing — calling it “trauma on top of trauma.” What they did express was relief and understandable gratitude for the fact that, after tonight, they would no longer receive another call or letter from the state about Tommy’s case. The problem is, that gratitude and relief could have been felt three decades ago if Tommy had been given a life without parole sentence. No years of appeals. No uncertainty waiting for a sentence to be carried out.
Instead, tonight’s execution created a new grieving family. Tommy had his final visit with his mother this morning. He was able to speak to his sister, Michelle, who wisely recognized that her family was now added to the collateral damage that the death penalty causes. And yet in her grief over her brother’s pending execution, Michelle stated: I want to extend my deepest condolences to Ms. McGrath’s family. I am very very sorry for your loss. I hope your hearts heal with each passing day.
This is the bottom line of Florida’s death penalty. It compounds trauma. It creates more victims. It leaves siblings without siblings, parents without children. It prolongs decades of suffering for everyone. It is not an exaggeration to say that Florida’s death penalty is currently the most aggressive, insidious, secretive, and politically wielded scheme in the nation. We have become the monsters we claim that we are so desperately trying to stop.