Florida executes one of its oldest prisoners in state’s 10th lethal injection this year | Florida

Florida on Tuesday executed one of the oldest inmates in state history, a 74-year-old convicted murderer who was one of three older inmates scheduled to be executed within a month in the nation’s busiest death penalty state.

Dennis Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. after three drug injections at the Florida state prison near Starke. He was convicted of murdering Patricia Gifford on January 1, 1982, just hours after meeting the 18-year-old woman at a New Year’s Eve party.

When the curtain of the death chamber opened at the execution time at 6 pm, Sochor was strapped to the stretcher with an IV in his arm. When asked if the principal had any final words, Sochor said he did.

Gifford apologized repeatedly to her family, saying she was “so sorry” and thanking her loved ones for their support over the years. Shortly before the drugs started flowing at 6:03 p.m., he praised his soul to Jesus Christ.

Soch breathed heavily for about a minute and then sputtered for several seconds. After two minutes in which Sochor appeared motionless, the principal looked him in the eye, shook his shoulders, and shouted his name without receiving a response. A doctor was called at 18.14, shortly after Sochor was reported dead.

Another prisoner, a 74-year-old who was just a week younger than Sochor at the time of execution, was also executed last month. And later this month, the state is preparing to execute an 80-year-old, the first octogenarian to face lethal injection in the state.

The execution plans highlight the aging death row in the United States and the busy death row in Florida, which has carried out 10 of the 16 executions in the country this year (more than all other states combined).

Patricia’s sister, Marilyn Gifford, said after witnessing the execution that Sochor’s death brought some closure to the family, but that his body was never found was bittersweet. He encouraged anyone with information that could lead to the remains to contact authorities.

“He had 45 years to return Patty’s remains to us, but he cruelly chose not to do so,” Gifford said, reading a statement. “We never had the chance to leave her in God’s arms. Without closure, every happy memory of Patty is instantly destroyed by the tragedy of her murder.”

Gifford also pointed out that Sochor lived twice as long as her sister, who spent her entire life on death row. “Tonight’s execution was appropriate because Dennis Sochor was a cruel and sadistic man throughout his life,” he said.

According to court records, Gifford was celebrating New Year’s Eve with a friend at a bar in the Fort Lauderdale area when she met Sochor and his brother.

The four spent hours talking, but after their friend fell ill and slept in his car, Gifford left to have breakfast with Sochor and her brother. But instead of going to buy food, Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded area and attacked Gifford, according to investigators.

Sochor was arrested in Georgia on unrelated charges in 1986 and extradited to Florida. Sochor’s brother told police that Sochor was responsible for Gifford’s disappearance, and Sochor also admitted on tape to strangling Gifford and dumping her body. In 1987, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping and he was sentenced to death.

On Tuesday, the US supreme court rejected Sochor’s latest appeal without comment.

On June 25, Florida executed 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer for the murder of his wife, Karen. Until Tuesday, Spencer was the oldest inmate executed in Florida.

The oldest inmates previously executed by the state were both 72 years old, according to Florida Department of Corrections records: Samuel Lee Smithers on Oct. 14, 2025, for the 1996 killings of two women, and R. Charlie Gifford for the Feb. 21, 1951 shooting of state Rep. Charles Schuh Jr.

Meanwhile, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone is scheduled to be executed July 28 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s parents.

If executed as planned, 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr. He will be the second-oldest prisoner executed in modern U.S. history, after Moody was executed in Alabama in 2018 for killing a federal judge and a black civil rights lawyer during a wave of mail bombs across the South.