Florida put to dying considered one of its oldest prisoners in its historical past on Tuesday, a 74-year-old convicted assassin who was considered one of three older inmates scheduled for execution throughout the span of a month within the nation’s busiest dying penalty state.
Dennis Sochor was pronounced lifeless at 6:16 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Jail close to Starke.
He was convicted of killing Patricia Gifford on Jan. 1, 1982, simply hours after assembly the 18-year-old girl at a New 12 months’s Eve get together.
Sochor was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the dying chamber went up on the 6 p.m. execution time. Requested by the warden if he had any final phrases, Sochor mentioned he did.
He apologized a number of instances to the Gifford household, saying he was “deeply sorry” and in addition thanked his personal family members for his or her help through the years.
Then he recommended his spirit to Jesus Christ shortly earlier than the medicine started flowing at 6:03 p.m.
Sochor underwent a couple of minute of heavy respiration after which some seconds of sputtering. After two minutes by which Sochor appeared to go nonetheless, the warden appeared into his eyes, shook his shoulders and yelled his title with out getting a response.
A medic was summoned at 6:14 p.m., quickly after announcing Sochor lifeless.
One other 74-year-old inmate only a week youthful than Sochor on the time of execution was put to dying final month.
And later this month, the state is making ready to execute an 80-year-old, the state’s first octogenarian going through a deadly injection.
The execution plans spotlight the growing old dying row inhabitants within the US and the busy dying chamber in Florida, which has now carried out 10 of the 16 executions performed within the nation this yr — greater than each different state mixed.
Marilyn Gifford, Patricia’s sister, mentioned after witnessing the execution that Sochor’s dying brings some closure to the household, however it’s bittersweet since her physique has by no means been discovered.
She inspired anybody with data that might result in the stays to contact authorities.
“He had 45 years to return Patty’s stays to us, however he cruelly selected to not,” Gifford mentioned, studying from a press release. “We by no means received an opportunity to put her to relaxation in God’s arms. With out closure, each comfortable reminiscence of Patty is straight away crushed by the tragedy of her homicide.”
Gifford additionally identified that Sochor received to stay greater than twice as lengthy on dying row as her sister lived her whole life. “Tonight’s execution was applicable as a result of Dennis Sochor was a lifelong brutal and sadistic man,” she mentioned.
It’s unclear why Florida scheduled the executions of the three prisoners consecutively.
Maria DeLiberato, authorized director of Floridians for Options to the Dying Penalty, famous that in Florida the governor has virtually sole discretion in terms of scheduling executions. In lots of different dying penalty states, the scheduling is as much as the courts.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ workplace didn’t reply to emailed requests for remark concerning the current tempo of the executions.
A New 12 months’s Day killing
In accordance with court docket information, Gifford was celebrating the upcoming New 12 months with a pal at a Fort Lauderdale space bar after they met Sochor and his brother.
The 4 spent hours speaking, however after the pal grew to become unwell and went to sleep in her automobile, Gifford left with Sochor and his brother to get breakfast.
However as a substitute of going for meals, Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded space and attacked Gifford, in response to investigators.
Sochor was later arrested in Georgia in 1986 on unrelated fees and extradited to Florida. Sochor’s brother advised police Sochor was liable for Gifford’s disappearance, and Sochor himself confessed on tape to choking Gifford and disposing of her physique.
A jury convicted him of first-degree homicide and kidnapping in 1987, and he was sentenced to dying.
On Tuesday, the US Supreme Courtroom rejected Sochor’s closing enchantment with out remark.
Oldest inmates executed in Florida
On June 25, Florida executed 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer for the killing of his spouse Karen. Till Tuesday, Spencer was the oldest inmate executed in Florida.
In accordance with Florida Division of Corrections information, the oldest inmates beforehand executed by the state have been each 72: Samuel Lee Smithers on Oct. 14, 2025, for the 1996 killings of two girls and R. Charlie Gifford on Feb. 21, 1951, for the 1950 taking pictures of a state consultant, Charles Schuh Jr.
In the meantime, Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, is scheduled to be executed July 28 for the killings of his ex-girlfriend’s dad and mom.
If executed as deliberate, he would change into the second oldest prisoner recognized to be put to dying in trendy US historical past after 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr. Moody was executed in Alabama in 2018 for killing a federal choose and a Black civil rights legal professional throughout a wave of Southern mail bombs.
