Florida execution stay request appealed to U.S. Supreme Court
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."
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