Overview
- Dennis Sochor, 74, is scheduled to receive a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison at 6 p.m. on Tuesday after the Florida Supreme Court denied his appeals and his lawyers filed a last petition with the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Sochor was convicted in 1987 for the 1982 killing of 18-year-old Patricia Gifford, he confessed on tape and her body has never been found, and the victim’s family says the execution could bring overdue answers and closure.
- Dominick Anthony Occhicone, who is 80, remains scheduled for execution on July 28 and would be one of the very few octogenarians executed in modern U.S. history if carried out.
- Defense teams argue the drugs used for lethal injection can cause pulmonary edema and may not keep elderly, frail inmates fully sedated, a medical claim that underpins active Eighth Amendment and procedural challenges.
- Florida has sharply increased executions under the governor’s scheduling authority, carrying out a record 19 in 2025 and nine so far this year, and the rise of lengthy appeals has pushed the average age of executed inmates higher, prompting ethical and legal debate.