Dennis Sochor, convicted of killing 18-year-old Patty Gifford in 1982, was executed Tuesday evening. Photo courtesy of Florida Department of Corrections/Website
July 14 (UPI) — Florida on Tuesday evening executed a man convicted of murdering a woman at a 1982 New Year’s Eve party and then disposing of her remains, which have yet to be found.
Dennis Sochor’s lethal injection was scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. EDT. He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m., the Florida Department of Corrections said in a statement.
At 74 years old, Sochor was the oldest person to be put to death in the state’s history.
He is the 17th death row inmate to be killed in the United States this year and the 10thh in the Sunshine State, following a 2025 in which Florida killed a record-setting 19 people.
Sochor was executed hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request for a stay of execution. His lawyers argued the use of lethal injection violated Sochor’s constitutional rights, stating that previously executed prisoners showed evidence of pulmonary edema as a result of the lethal injection.
Pulmonary edema causes fluid to build up in the lungs and creates the sensation of drowning. Sochor’s lawyers argued the drug that was supposed to prevent a person from feeling the effects of the pulmonary edema wore off before death.
Sochor, a U.S. veteran, was convicted of killing 18-year-old Patty Gifford after both attended a New Year’s Eve party. Police say Sochor, then 29, sexually assaulted and then strangled Gifford in his vehicle. He then disposed of her body and never told anyone her whereabouts.
Gifford’s family said they hoped Sochor would reveal the location of her remains.
“It’s unfinished,” Patty Gifford’s sister, Marilyn Gifford, told CBS News. “Where is she? What did he do to her? Where did he leave her? It just matters. It matters so much.”
She said, though, that Sochor’s execution will allow the family some peace and closure.
“I expect to sleep like a baby tomorrow night for the first time in decades,” she said.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty accused Florida of murder for killing a senior citizen who “no longer posed a threat to anyone.”
“The execution of a septuagenarian delivers non of the ‘promises’ the death penalty purports to offer,” the organization said in a statement.
“Dennis is not the same man as when he entered prison four decades ago. He matured. He grew old. He reflected on his life. He found faith, friendship and gratitude in places most people would never think to look.”
Earlier Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis set July 28 as the execution date for James Duckett, who was convicted of the 1987 murder of a 11-year-old girl — the same day Dominick Anthony Occhicone is scheduled to be executed in the state.
If both are executed that day, it will be the first time Florida has executed two people on the same day since the resumption of the death penalty in 1977.
“We are now halfway through the year, and we again own the dark distinction as the state that is killing the highest number of its own citizens,” Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said.
“This is not something to celebrate or use to score political points.”
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