Florida carried out the execution of a 74-year-old man on Tuesday, making him the oldest prisoner put to death in the state’s modern era.
Dennis Sochor was declared dead at 6:16 p.m. following a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, the Florida Department of Corrections said. He had been convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of 18-year-old Patricia Gifford, who prosecutors said was killed after refusing to have sex with him on Jan. 1, 1982.
Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined, without explanation, to grant Sochor a stay of execution and also turned away his request for review, clearing the way for the sentence to be carried out as planned.
When the curtain to the execution chamber was opened, Sochor was already secured to a gurney with an IV line placed in his arm.
Dennis Sochor, 74, was found guilty of killing an 18-year-old woman in the 1980s. (Florida Department of Corrections.)
In his final statement, Sochor repeatedly apologized to Gifford’s family, saying he was “deeply sorry” for what he had done, a spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office said, according to The Associated Press. He also expressed gratitude to his family and friends for standing by him through the years and entrusted his spirit to Jesus Christ.
Sochor did not request a last meal and met with one visitor as well as a spiritual adviser before the execution, the outlet reported.
According to Fox 13, Sochor was with his brother when he encountered Gifford, who was celebrating New Year’s Day at a bar in the Fort Lauderdale area.
The group talked through the night, but Gifford left with Sochor and his brother to get breakfast. Sochor drove his truck to a secluded area and asked Gifford if she wanted to have sex, and she refused. Sochor then attacked the teenager, according to investigators.
Clouds hover over the entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, Fla., Aug. 3, 2023. (AP)
Sochor was arrested in 1986 on unrelated charges and extradited to Florida, where he confessed to choking Gifford and disposing of her body.
His brother told authorities Sochor was responsible for Gifford’s disappearance, and her body was never found.
In 1987, a jury convicted Sochor of first-degree murder and kidnapping, and he was sentenced to death.
The view from outside an execution chamber in Florida (Florida Department of Corrections)
While Sochor was the oldest inmate in Florida’s modern history to be executed, an 80-year-old prisoner is scheduled to be executed later in July. Another 74-year-old inmate only a week younger than Sochor at the time of execution was put to death last month.
Sochor’s execution was the 10th in Florida so far this year.
In 2025, 19 people were put to death in Florida, setting a record for the most executions in one year in the Sunshine State. Before last year, Florida’s record for executions in a year since the death penalty was restored in 1976 was eight in 1984 and 2014.
Florida also executed more people last year than any other state, with Alabama, Texas and South Carolina tied for the second-most with five each. Across the U.S., 47 people were executed in 2025.
