Dennis Sochor, who spent nearly four decades on death row, was executed Tuesday, July 15, bringing renewed attention to one of the state’s long-standing policies limiting what condemned inmates can request for their final meal.
Dennis Sochor, 74, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison, making him the oldest inmate ever executed in Florida, according to The Guardian.
Although death row inmates are traditionally allowed to choose a final meal, Florida has some of the strictest rules in the country. Since 1979, the state has capped the cost of a last meal at $40.
The meal must also be prepared using ingredients that can be purchased from local grocery stores, and inmates are not allowed to request fast food.
However, for Sochor those rules didn’t really matter. The day before his execution, he said: “I don’t need a last meal or nothing.
“I think I’m just gonna go on a spiritual journey of prayer and fasting up till tomorrow,” according to UNILAD.
He also refused food from the vending machine, saying he didn’t “want to waste time eating.
Oldest death row inmate in Florida
Sochor had been on death row since the 1980s after being convicted in the killing of 18-year-old Patty Gifford, who disappeared after a New Year’s Eve celebration in South Florida in 1982. Authorities said he raped and killed her before disposing of her body. Despite extensive searches, Gifford’s remains have never been found.
It wasn’t until May 1986, more than four years after the crim, that Sochor was arrested.
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,” according to VT.
“She was a young and beautiful girl, with everything to live for, it’s a real tragedy.”
Throughout multiple appeals, Sochor argued that prosecutors could not prove Gifford was dead because her body had never been recovered. Courts repeatedly rejected that argument.
Dennis Sochor was executed by lethal injection
Speaking to the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1983, Gifford’s mother, Marilyn Gifford, said: “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?”
In 1987, Gifford said: “He had no pity on Patty, and we have no pity on him. I hope when he takes his last breath, he thinks of her taking her last breath.”
Kelly Hancock, the lead prosecutor in the case who has since retired, reflected on the case in comments to the Miami Herald.
“I do not remember all the facts. But I do remember the victims, and the victims’ families,” Hancock said.
“He just dumped her out there like trash. That makes it worse.”
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