{"id":8847,"date":"2026-07-14T23:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/death-row-inmates-harrowing-final-words-before-becoming-oldest-florida-inmate-to-be-executed\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T23:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:44:12","slug":"death-row-inmates-harrowing-final-words-before-becoming-oldest-florida-inmate-to-be-executed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/death-row-inmates-harrowing-final-words-before-becoming-oldest-florida-inmate-to-be-executed\/","title":{"rendered":"Death row inmate&#8217;s harrowing final words before becoming oldest Florida inmate to be executed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article-body\">\n<h2 class=\"LeadText_lead-text__wd_PA __className_feca84\" data-testid=\"leadtext\">Dennis Sochor, who was convicted of killing Patricia Gifford on Jan. 1, 1982, just hours after meeting her at a New Year\u2019s Eve party, has become the oldest inmate to be executed in Florida<\/h2>\n<p><button type=\"button\" class=\"SlideViewerButton_slide-viewer-button__BDJoG\" aria-label=\"Open image viewer\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-controls=\"image-lightbox\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX ImageEmbed_image-lead__Ti3qQ\" data-testid=\"leadimage\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"37432045\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.5\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"(l-r) Dusty Ray Spencer, Dennis Sochor and Dominick Occhicone\" loading=\"eager\" sizes=\"(max-width: 508px) 508px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 1200px\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432045.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/2_Executions-Older-Prisoners-26190808576837.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432045.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s508\/2_Executions-Older-Prisoners-26190808576837.jpg 508w, https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432045.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615\/2_Executions-Older-Prisoners-26190808576837.jpg 615w, https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432045.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/2_Executions-Older-Prisoners-26190808576837.jpg 1200w\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"(l-r) Dusty Ray Spencer, Dennis Sochor and Dominick Occhicone\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">(l-r) Dusty Ray Spencer, Dennis Sochor and Dominick Occhicone<cite aria-label=\"Image: Florida Department of Correction\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-credit__wlx1W\" data-testid=\"caption-credit\">(Image: Florida Department of Correction)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<p><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Florida put to death one of its oldest prisoners in its history on Tuesday, a 74-year-old convicted murderer who was <a target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"one of three older inmatesLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/execution-older-prisoners-florida-death-row-sochor-16189279b53d328ca9579896ec761c6c\" rel=\"nofollow\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">one of three older inmates<\/a> scheduled for execution within the span of a month in the nation\u2019s busiest death penalty state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Dennis Sochor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of killing Patricia Gifford on Jan. 1, 1982, just hours after meeting the 18-year-old woman at a <a target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/new-year\" rel=\"follow\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">New Year<\/a>\u2019s Eve party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Sochor was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up at at the 6 p.m. execution time. Asked by the warden if he had any last words, Sochor said he did.<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"image-group\"><button type=\"button\" class=\"SlideViewerButton_slide-viewer-button__BDJoG\" aria-label=\"Open image viewer\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-controls=\"image-lightbox\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX false\" data-testid=\"imageembed-37432043\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"37432043\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"image\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.5\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(max-width: 458px) 458px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 1200px\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432043.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200e\/0_ROOM-FOR-EXECUTION-BY-LETHAL-INJECTION-IN-TEXAS.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432043.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s458b\/0_ROOM-FOR-EXECUTION-BY-LETHAL-INJECTION-IN-TEXAS.jpg 458w, https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432043.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/0_ROOM-FOR-EXECUTION-BY-LETHAL-INJECTION-IN-TEXAS.jpg 615w, https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432043.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200e\/0_ROOM-FOR-EXECUTION-BY-LETHAL-INJECTION-IN-TEXAS.jpg 1200w\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\"><cite aria-label=\"Image: Sygma via Getty Images\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-credit__wlx1W\" data-testid=\"caption-credit\">(Image: Sygma via Getty Images)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<p><\/button><\/div>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He apologized several times to the Gifford family, saying he was \u201cdeeply sorry\u201d for his actions and thanked his own loved ones for their support over the years. Then, he finished by commending his spirit to Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The lethal drugs began flowing at 6:03 p.m. Sochor underwent about a minute of heavy breathing and then some seconds of sputtering. After two minutes of relative stillness, the warden looked into his eyes, shook his shoulders and yelled his name. There was no response. A medic was called into the room at 6:14 p.m., and Sochor was pronounced dead soon after.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">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\u2019s first octogenarian scheduled to receive a lethal injection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">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 of the 16 executions conducted in the nation this year \u2014 more than every other state combined.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">It\u2019s unclear why Florida scheduled the executions of the three prisoners consecutively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis did not respond to an email prior to Tuesday&#8217;s lethal injection seeking comment about the executions.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"HeadingTwo_heading-two__4TTeG  __className_00ea59\">A New Year&#8217;s Day killing<\/h2>\n<div data-testid=\"image-group\"><button type=\"button\" class=\"SlideViewerButton_slide-viewer-button__BDJoG\" aria-label=\"Open image viewer\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-controls=\"image-lightbox\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX false\" data-testid=\"imageembed-37432044\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"37432044\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"image\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.361573373676248\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(max-width: 458px) 458px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 1200px\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432044.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200e\/0_FILES-US-EXECUTION-JUSTICE.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432044.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s458b\/0_FILES-US-EXECUTION-JUSTICE.jpg 458w, https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432044.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/0_FILES-US-EXECUTION-JUSTICE.jpg 615w, https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37432044.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200e\/0_FILES-US-EXECUTION-JUSTICE.jpg 1200w\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\"><cite aria-label=\"Image: AFP via Getty Images\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-credit__wlx1W\" data-testid=\"caption-credit\">(Image: AFP via Getty Images)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<p><\/button><\/div>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">According to court records, Gifford was celebrating the upcoming New Year with a friend at a Fort Lauderdale area bar when they met Sochor and his brother.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Sochor was later arrested in Georgia in 1986 on unrelated charges and extradited to Florida. Sochor\u2019s brother told police that Sochor was responsible for Gifford\u2019s 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 first-degree murder and kidnapping in 1987, and he was sentenced to death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Sochor\u2019s last request to intervene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">And last week, the state Supreme Court denied Sochor\u2019s appeals, including arguments that the state violated his right to a fair trial by failing to disclose a 2022 letter sent to Sochor\u2019s brother from a detective asking for information about the location of Gifford\u2019s body.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"HeadingTwo_heading-two__4TTeG  __className_00ea59\">Oldest inmates executed in Florida<\/h2>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">On June 25, Florida executed 74-year-old <a target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Dusty Ray SpencerLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/florida-execution-dusty-ray-spencer-25bf0b98ffc4a25ebcaf1d2a408c6e82\" rel=\"nofollow\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Dusty Ray Spencer<\/a> for the killing of his wife Karen. Until Tuesday, Spencer was the oldest inmate executed in Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">According to Florida Department of Corrections records, the oldest inmates executed by the state before Spencer were both 72: <a target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Samuel Lee SmithersLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/florida-record-execution-smithers-desantis-7d313e12964a529ae3e4e5c63d4ba813\" rel=\"nofollow\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Samuel Lee Smithers<\/a> on Oct. 14, 2025, for the 1996 killings of two women and R. Charlie Gifford on Feb. 21, 1951, for the 1950 shooting of a state representative, Charles Schuh Jr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Meanwhile, Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, is scheduled to be executed July 28 for the killings of his ex-girlfriend&#8217;s parents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He would become the second oldest prisoner known to be put to death in modern U.S. times after <a target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"83-year-old Walter Moody Jr.Link opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/general-news-857f53d19f8e4443bd3863e0b89f0257\" rel=\"nofollow\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">83-year-old Walter Moody Jr.<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/us-news\/florida-oldest-prisoner-executed-74-37432032\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dennis Sochor, who was convicted of killing Patricia Gifford on Jan. 1, 1982, just hours<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2_Executions-Older-Prisoners-26190808576837.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}