Florida to Execute Oldest Inmate in State History

Florida is set to execute one of its oldest death row prisoners in history, Dennis Sochor, who has been on death row since the 1980s. The 74-year-old convicted murderer is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke later this month. Sochor was convicted of killing a woman, Patricia Gifford, on January 1, 1982, just hours after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party.

If the execution is carried out as scheduled, Sochor will be exactly one week older than Dusty Ray Spencer, who was executed just weeks earlier and is currently the oldest inmate to ever die by lethal injection in Florida. Another 80-year-old prisoner is also set to be executed in Florida, which would make him the state’s first octogenarian to receive the death penalty. The executions highlight the nation’s aging death row population and the busy death row chamber in Florida, which has already carried out nine executions this year.

According to court records, Sochor met Gifford and her friend at a Fort Lauderdale area bar on New Year’s Eve. After Gifford’s friend became ill and went to sleep in her car, Gifford left with Sochor and his brother to get breakfast. However, Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded area and attacked Gifford when she refused to have sex with him.

Sochor was later arrested in Georgia in 1986 on unrelated charges and extradited to Florida, where he confessed to choking Gifford and disposing of her body, which was never found. Sochor’s 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.

However, the state Supreme Court denied Sochor’s appeals, and a final appeal is still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Florida’s recent executions have raised questions about the state’s discretion in scheduling executions.

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 the scheduling of executions, unlike many other death penalty states where the scheduling is up to the courts. The office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did not respond to an email seeking comment about the state’s recent executions.