Florida put to death one of its oldest prisoners in its history on Tuesday, a 74-year-old convicted murderer who was 1 of 3 older inmates scheduled for execution within the span of a month in the nation’s busiest death penalty state.
Dennis Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said. He was convicted of killing a woman on Jan. 1, 1982, just hours after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party.
Alex Lanfranconi, a spokesman for the governor, said the execution was carried out without complications and that Sochor issued an apology in his final words, saying he was “deeply sorry” for his actions.
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Another 74-year-old inmate just a week younger than Sochor at the time of execution was put to death late last month. And later this month, the state is preparing to execute an 80-year-old, the state’s 1st octogenarian scheduled to receive a lethal injection.
The execution plans highlight the aging death row population in the U.S. and the busy death chamber in Florida, which has now carried out 10 executions this year—more than every other state combined.
It’s unclear why Florida scheduled the executions of the 3 prisoners consecutively.
Maria DeLiberato, legal director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, noted that in Florida the governor has practically sole discretion when it comes to scheduling executions. In many other death penalty states, the scheduling is up to the courts.
DeSantis did not respond to an email prior to Tuesday’s lethal injection seeking comment about the executions.
A New Year’s Day killing
According to court records, 18-year-old Patricia Gifford was celebrating the upcoming New Year with a friend at a Fort Lauderdale area bar when they met Sochor and his brother in the waning hours of 1981.
The four spent several hours talking, but after the friend became ill and went to sleep in her car, Gifford left with Sochor and his brother to get breakfast. But instead of going for food, Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded area and attacked Gifford when she refused to have sex with him, according to investigators.
Sochor was later arrested in Georgia in 1986 on unrelated charges and extradited to Florida. Sochor’s brother told police that Sochor was responsible for Gifford’s disappearance, and Sochor himself confessed on tape to choking Gifford and disposing of her body, which was never found. A jury found him guilty of 1st-degree murder and kidnapping in 1987, and he was sentenced to death.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Sochor’s last request to intervene.
And last week, the state Supreme Court denied Sochor’s appeals. His attorneys had argued that the state violated his right to a fair trial by failing to disclose a 2022 letter sent to Sochor’s brother from a South Florida detective asking for information about the location of Gifford’s body. The attorneys also claimed that the execution drugs wouldn’t effectively keep Sochor sedated.
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 2 women and R. Charlie Gifford on Feb. 21, 1951, for the 1950 shooting of a state representative, Charles Schuh Jr.
Meanwhile, Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, is scheduled to be executed July 28 for the killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents.
He would become the 2nd oldest prisoner known to be put to death in modern U.S. history after 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr. Moody was executed in Alabama in 2018 for killing a federal judge and a Black civil rights attorney during a wave of Southern mail bombs.
A total of 16 executions have been carried out this year in the U.S., with Florida, so far, carrying out more than all other states combined.
Florida carried out a record 19 executions in 2025. DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was 8 executions set in 2014.
Sochor becomes the 10th condemned inmate to be put to death in Florida this year and the 135th overall since the state resumed executions on May 25, 1979. Only Texas (600) has carried out more executions in the modern era, beginning on July 2, 1976, when the US Supreme Court ruled in Gregg v. Georgia that states were again free to start resentencing capital defendants to death after a 4-year moratorium.
Sochor becomes the 17th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA, and the 1,671st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977, 6 months after the Gregg decision.
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Statement on the Execution of Dennis Sochor
July 14, 2026
Tonight, We The People of the State of Florida executed Dennis “Denny” Sochor, a 74-year-old United States Army veteran who spent 40 years on Florida's death row.
We grieve first and foremost for Patricia Gifford, whose young life was stolen in 1981, and for all who have carried the burden of grief for decades. Nothing can undo that harm.
We also grieve for Dennis, for those who loved him, and for the people of Florida, whose government has once again chosen another unnecessary act of violence. Whether we support the death penalty or oppose it, we each bear the responsibility for this ongoing state-sanctioned killing.
We are now halfway through the year, and we again own the dark distinction as the state that is killing the highest numbers of its own citizens. In fact, Florida has executed more people in 2026 alone than all other states combined. This is not something to celebrate or use to score political points.
Dennis Sochor's story is familiar. After all, people with nurturing and safe childhoods do not typically end up on death row. Before he ever wore our nation's uniform or heard a judge bang a gavel, he experienced profound trauma, violence, neglect, and generational mental illness. While those facts may not excuse what happened to Patricia Gifford, they absolutely help explain how a human life could become so deeply broken.
Even after decades of litigation, important questions surrounding this case never fully disappeared. Patricia Gifford's body was never recovered. The State twists this fact to argue that Dennis is remorseless, and has withheld this detail on purpose. However, the reality is that Dennis has long explained that he does not know exactly where Patricia was killed. And that, if he did, he would lead police to her location. There’s no reason for him to lie about that – after all, he did detail his involvement to police after his arrest.
The State’s case rested heavily on Dennis' statements, which were given to the police while he was experiencing a depressive episode of his untreated bipolar disorder. The State also relied on the testimony of his brother, Gary, who was present on the night Patricia disappeared. Gary was likely given immunity for his cooperation, and was never charged.
As recently as 2022, police contacted Gary requesting information about the location of Patricia’s body. If they’re sure they have the right man and the full picture of the crime, what are they still investigating?
Compounding the uncertainty around the crime is the uncertainty around Florida’s execution method. Despite increasing concerns regarding lethal injection in Florida and beyond, the state and federal courts continued to shield Florida from any meaningful investigation into the way it kills. Hiding behind stringent procedural bars, Florida is playing a shell game – altering its protocol as it pleases over the years and then successfully arguing that condemned prisoners raised the method challenges too late.
The execution of a septuagenarian delivers none of the “promises” the death penalty purports to offer. Dennis is not the same man as when he entered prison four decades ago. He matured. He grew old. He reflected on his life. He found faith, friendship, and gratitude in places most people would never think to look. He listened to classical music and read philosophy. He fell in love. He watched documentaries about migrating birds. He fed the squirrels in the prison rec yard. He waited for the rare sight of a bald eagle soaring over Florida State Prison.
When recounting those experiences, he wrote to a friend, "I don't celebrate my stay here in my loneliness… but I search for all signs of life, like the birds and the squirrel visiting." There is profound tragedy in the notion that while Dennis awaited his own death, he treasured all the reminders of life around him.
His letters, published in a book by a longtime penfriend, reveal a man who never stopped looking outward. While waiting each day to learn whether Florida would one day execute him, Dennis wrote about children suffering in war, refugees living in poverty, prisoners starving in North Korea, and the importance of compassion.
He wrote, "I have learned to cherish life. Each and everyone must learn to love themselves to be able to love others." He dreamed about what he would do if given another chance. "If I am ever released from this prison," he wrote, "I will find the most peaceful place on the planet and do as many good deeds as I possibly can."
Tonight, Florida murdered a senior citizen, who, even though trapped by steel and concrete surroundings, embraced humanity and found joy in the flight of birds, the visit of a friendly squirrel, the kindness of his friends and loved ones, and the possibility of a better world. He no longer posed a threat to anyone.
We will remember Patricia Gifford. We will remember Dennis Sochor. And we will continue to ask Florida the same question after every execution: What part of our own humanity do we surrender when we allow killing to be carried out in our names? — Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Source: Associated Press, David Fischer, Rick Halperin, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, July 15, 2026
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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