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Florida Prisoner, 74, Becomes The Oldest Inmate Executed In State’s Modern History
July 15, 2026
Dennis Michael Sochor was executed Tuesday evening for the death of 18-year-old Patricia “Patty” Gifford in Broward County 44 years ago, becoming the oldest person put to death by the state since executions were revived in 1977.
Sochor, 74, was executed by lethal injection at 6:16 p.m. (EDT) at Florida State Prison, according to the Department of Corrections.
The execution occurred hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his latest motion for a stay.
Sochor was 18 days older than Dusty Ray Spencer when he was executed June 18 for killing his estranged wife. The execution was the tenth in Florida this year.
According to court documents, Gifford went to a bar with a friend to celebrate New Year’s Eve 1981, where they encountered Dennis Sochor and his brother Gary Sochor. The friend was escorted to a car in the parking lot, where she fell asleep. The brothers took Gifford in Dennis Sochor’s work truck, intending to get breakfast. Instead, Dennis Sochor stopped his truck in a secluded spot and took Gifford out of the vehicle.
Sochor confessed that when Gifford refused to have sex with him, he became angry, choked her until she died, and disposed of her body, which was never found, records state. Sochor told police his brother wasn’t with him at the time.
The Gifford family released a statement Tuesday thanking prosecutors, investigators and others who carried the case forward and to “correct a painful misconception” that Patty Gifford “willingly went off with Dennis Sochor and his brother Gary.”
“Sochor’s conviction and sentencing in 1987 gave our family a measure of justice, consolation, and closure in knowing that he would never again be free to hurt another woman,” according to the family’s statement provided by Patricia Gifford’s brother, Bob Gifford
“When he confessed in 1987 and led detectives to the Alligator Alley area in an attempt to locate Patty, we also came to understand that her remains would likely never be recovered.”
“Today marked the end of a legal process that lasted nearly half a century,” the statement continued. “Patty’s remains were never recovered, but her life was never lost to us. She was our sister, our daughter, our friend, and she mattered.”
Sochor is the 17th prisoner executed in the U.S. this year. Besides Florida, there have been four inmates put to death in Texas, two in Oklahoma and one in Arizona.
There were 47 executions last year, with Florida accounting for 19, the most in one year for the state in the modern era.
Because of the increased pace of executions, Rev. Jeff Hood, Sochor’s spiritual advisor, challenged Gov. Ron DeSantis to attend an execution to experience what corrections officials go through. Hood also questioned the selection of aged inmates for the latest round of executions.
Sochor may not hold the oldest executed distinction for long.
DeSantis has already signed a death warrant for Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, who is set to be executed on July 28 for killing his former girlfriend’s parents four decades ago.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Comments
6 Responses to “Florida Prisoner, 74, Becomes The Oldest Inmate Executed In State’s Modern History”
I think you should carry out the death penalty within 5 years at the most. When you wait 44 years to execute a person you are not dealing with the same person that he was 44 years ago. It is wrong. His sentence should have been changed to life.
This guy confessed to killing her. When the death penalty sentence has handed down. He should have been dead within the week. For ALL the world to see. That’s deterrence.
So on the one hand the court system wants to ensure every legal avenue has been exhausted before a death sentance is carried out (44 years in this case) but then others want to complain because they are in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s when their sentence is finally carried out. Then to add to that, the citizens of the State of Florida paid the legal fees for those 44 years of appeals and legal manuevering. I read on a State website a few years ago that someone setenced to life without possibility of parole on average cost the State taxpayers about $1M while the average cost of someone on death row is $2M due to legal fees.
Agree with @JR; we are paying for these murderers to live in prison. Meanwhile, people have lost family members without justice because it takes decades to put the demons who killed them to death.
@JR
Fully agreed, this should have happened 43 years ago, 42 at the latest, to allow one appellate review.
It’s ridiculous our legal system houses a convicted capital murderer for over forty years before the sentence is followed through.