Florida executed 74-year-old Dennis Sochor on Tuesday, making him the oldest inmate in the state's history to be put to death. Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of murdering 18-year-old Patricia Gifford on Jan. 1, 1982, just hours after meeting her at a New Year's Eve party.
Final Words and Execution
Sochor, already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm, apologized several times to the Gifford family, saying he was "deeply sorry" for his actions. He thanked his own loved ones for their support and commended his spirit to Jesus Christ. The lethal drugs began flowing at 6:03 p.m. Sochor experienced about a minute of heavy breathing and then some seconds of sputtering. After two minutes of relative stillness, the warden looked into his eyes, shook his shoulders, and yelled his name. There was no response. A medic was called at 6:14 p.m., and Sochor was pronounced dead soon after.
Florida's Aging Death Row Population
Sochor's execution is part of a series of three scheduled executions of older inmates in Florida within a month. Another 74-year-old inmate, Dusty Ray Spencer, was executed on June 25 for the killing of his wife Karen. Later this month, the state plans to execute 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone for the murders of his ex-girlfriend's parents. If carried out, Occhicone would become the second oldest prisoner executed in modern U.S. times, after 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr., who was executed in Alabama in 2018.
Florida has now conducted 10 of the 16 executions performed in the United States this year, more than every other state combined. Maria DeLiberato, legal director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, noted that in Florida, the governor has practically sole discretion in scheduling executions, unlike many other death penalty states where courts handle scheduling. The office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis did not respond to an email seeking comment before Tuesday's execution.
The Crime and Conviction
According to court records, Gifford was celebrating New Year's Eve at a Fort Lauderdale area bar with a friend when they met Sochor and his brother. The four spent several hours talking, but after the friend became ill and slept in her car, Gifford left with Sochor and his brother to get breakfast. Instead, Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded area and attacked Gifford when she refused to have sex with him, according to investigators.
Sochor was arrested in Georgia in 1986 on unrelated charges and extradited to Florida. His brother told police that Sochor was responsible for Gifford's disappearance, and Sochor confessed on tape to choking Gifford and disposing of her body, which was never found. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in 1987, and he was sentenced to death.
Appeals and Supreme Court Decisions
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Sochor's last request to intervene. Last week, the state Supreme Court denied his appeals, including arguments that the state violated his right to a fair trial by failing to disclose a 2022 letter from a detective to Sochor's brother asking for information about the location of Gifford's body.
Oldest Inmates Executed in Florida
According to Florida Department of Corrections records, the oldest inmates executed by the state before Spencer were both 72: Samuel Lee Smithers on Oct. 14, 2025, for the 1996 killings of two women, and R. Charlie Gifford on Feb. 21, 1951, for the 1950 shooting of a state representative.
