Florida is set to carry out the execution of its oldest death row inmate later today, July 14, with 74-year-old Dennis Sochor due to receive a lethal injection after spending close to four decades awaiting death.
If the sentence is carried out as scheduled, Sochor will become the oldest inmate Florida has executed in modern history.
The execution is expected to begin at around 6pm and will be carried out using Florida’s three-drug protocol.
Sochor’s death warrant follows a run of executions in Florida that has made the state the nation’s busiest death penalty state this year. Florida has already carried out nine executions in 2026, after a record 19 in 2025.
As with other death row inmates in the state, Sochor’s final meal is subject to tight restrictions. Florida has enforced a $40 cap since 1979, limiting what can be requested before an execution.
State rules also say the meal must be prepared using items available from local stores, while fast-food orders are not allowed.
Sochor was sentenced for the murder of 18-year-old Patricia Gifford, who disappeared on January 1, 1982, after meeting him during New Year’s Eve celebrations in South Florida.
Gifford had been out with a friend at the Banana Boat bar when Sochor and his brother approached them. The group spent hours together before Gifford’s friend became sick and went to sleep in her car.
Gifford later left with the two brothers. Instead of stopping for food as planned, their truck pulled over in a remote area, where prosecutors said Sochor attacked her after she refused to have sex with him.
He was not arrested until May 1986, more than four years after the killing.
Broward County Sheriff’s Lt. Mark Schlein told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1983:
“The only mistake she made was going out with friends and celebrating New Year’s Eve.
“She was a young and beautiful girl, with everything to live for, it’s a real tragedy.”
Over the years, Sochor has argued in court appeals that the state lacks proof of Gifford’s death because her body was never recovered. Those claims have been rejected.
Speaking with the outlet in 1983, Marilyn Gifford, the victim’s mother, added:
“It’s bad enough what he did to her.
“But he’s had all this time to repent, to think about what he did, so why not give her back?”
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied Sochor’s appeals. His 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.
Sochor’s legal team also argued that the state’s execution drugs would not effectively keep him sedated. A final appeal was still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.