Overview
- On June 25 Florida executed Dusty Ray Spencer, age 74, the oldest person put to death in the state in modern times, and a 74-year-old man, Dennis Sochor, is scheduled for execution on Tuesday.
- Dominick Anthony Occhicone, age 80, is set to be executed on July 28 and would be only the second known octogenarian executed in the U.S.; three other Florida inmates are older than him on death row.
- Governor Ron DeSantis has accelerated scheduling, overseeing a record 19 executions in 2025 and nine so far this year, and about half of Florida’s roughly 242 death-row inmates have exhausted appeals and can be given warrants at any time.
- Legal experts note that advanced age alone does not bar execution under current law and that successful challenges typically require proof of dementia, lack of mental capacity, or medical conditions that would cause undue pain.
- Victims’ relatives press for closure while clergy and advocates call executing frail, elderly prisoners especially cruel, and the cases highlight a national trend of an aging death-row population driven by decades-long appeals and reviews.