Florida Department of Corrections
By Jerome London
Dennis Sochor spent nearly 40 years on death row before Florida executed him Tuesday, making him the second 74-year-old to be executed in the state in three weeks. Dusty Ray Spencer, who was executed on June 25 for killing his wife, held the same record for a while.
A former Army major, Sochor is said to have died at 6:16 pm at Florida State Prison in Starke after injecting three lethal drugs. Witnesses said he spoke quickly so that his final statement could be transcribed in full, but he apologized to the Gifford family, thanked his loved ones, and gave his breath to Jesus. About a minute of heavy breathing and spitting followed before he fell silent. It was the state’s 10th execution in 2026 and the 38th since Gov. Ron DeSantis took office.
On New Year’s Eve 1981, 18-year-old Patricia “Patty” Gifford was celebrating with a friend at a Broward County resort when she met Sochor and her brother Gary. When his friend fell ill, the brothers helped carry him to the car. Gifford went back inside and never came out with his friend.
Police later found a photo from that night showing an unidentified man sitting next to Gifford at a bar. After being shown on television, his roommates revealed that he was Sochor and said that he had left suddenly after seeing himself on the radio. Gary turned him in to investigators and later testified that he saw Sochor on top of Gifford with his hands tied, and heard him yelling for help after the three left the living room pretending to get breakfast. Prosecutors played three recorded cases in which Sochor allegedly strangled her after she refused to be coaxed and disposed of her body.
His sister, Marilyn Gifford, told reporters that the killing brought the family “closure” after more than four decades. He said they continue to grieve because Patty’s remains have never been found, and asked anyone with information about the location of the body to contact the Broward Sheriff’s Office. He remembered his sister as “fun with a big FAN,” with a smile that “lighted up every room she walked into.”
“We hope and pray that now, after this night, when we think about Patty, it’s about the 18 years she lived and not the horrible way she died,” said Marilyn.
Outside the jail, about 50 protesters from Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church held a prayer vigil. Across the lawn, lone supporter Bill Campbell drowned them out through Bluetooth speakers, opening his playlist with a Soviet Army march because, he said, he believed the protesters were “a bunch of communists.”
The US Supreme Court rejected Sochor’s last appeal, a challenge to Florida’s lethal injection, without comment hours before he was executed.
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