Dennis Michael Sochor, convicted of strangling an 18-year-old woman he met at a New Year’s celebration in a Broward County bar 44 years ago, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison.
His last wish?
To have Gov. Ron DeSantis personally observe his execution up close and personal.
“Dennis very clearly has said that more so than even asking the governor to stop his execution, he’s asking for the governor’s attendance at his execution. Because he thinks that if the governor had to attend his execution, that that would be make a lot of difference for the pace in which he’s handling down these executions,” the Rev. Jeff Hood, founder of the Execution Intervention Project and spiritual adviser to Sochor, said Friday during a Zoom conference.
If Sochor’s execution takes place as scheduled, he would become the 10th person executed by the State of Florida this year and the 29th since January 2025 — far more than any other state in the nation in that time.
The governor has said little about the flurry of death row warrants he has signed in the past couple of years.
Journalist Pamela Colloff from The New York Times Magazine recently wrote that the secrecy surrounding his decisions on setting executions in Florida “has left victims’ families, prisoners and their lawyers searching for clues about what principles, if any, guide DeSantis’s selection process.”
Colloff went on to write, “How long a prisoner has spent on death row does not appear to be a deciding factor; DeSantis has bypassed prisoners who committed their crimes as far back as the 1970s, scheduling the executions of men convicted of murders committed decades later.”
According to court documents, Patricia Gifford, 18, and a friend went to the Banana Boat in Broward County to celebrate New Year’s Even 1981. That’s where they encountered Sochor and his brother, who repeatedly approached them there.
Sochor has confessed that when Gifford refused to have sex with him later that evening, he became angry, choked her until she died, and disposed of her body, which has never been found. He was indicted for first-degree murder and kidnaping and, after a jury trial, was found guilty of each offense, and recommended for execution by a Broward jury in 1989 by a vote of 10-2.
Hood said Friday that Sochor, 74, has either sent or given to prison staff a letter to Patricia Gifford’s family “expressing his remorse and sorrow for the pain he has caused.”
He added that Sochor has told law enforcement officers “multiple times” that he was too drunk to remember where he left Gifford’s body. “He wants people to know that if he could help locate the body, of course he would.”
After DeSantis signed a death warrant for his execution in June, Sochor filed his sixth postcondition motion in the Circuit Court for Broward County raising two legal claims: the state’s violation of its obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence, and a facial challenge to Florida’s lethal injection protocol. The trial judge denied both claims as untimely, procedurally barred, and without merit.
The Florida Supreme Court followed up this week and denied a motion by Sochor’s attorneys for a stay of execution and declined to hold oral arguments or entertain a motion for rehearing.
The surge in executions in Florida comes at a time when public support for the death penalty is at 52%, according to a Gallup survey taken last October. That’s the lowest since 1972, when 50% were in favor.
“We know that these executions are taking place at an enormous clip,” Rev. Hood said Friday. “We know that Gov. DeSantis is continually signing [death]warrants…and so I think it’s important to point out that his pen is a weapon and he is firing it indiscriminately.”
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
–Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
TR says
Another execution that should have happened years ago. If someone is convicted of a horrific crime and is sentences to be on death row. The appeal should have to be done within the first year after sentencing. If the inmate looses the appeal, then injection should be within the next few months. It would save the tax payers millions in keeping him or her alive for (in this case) 44 years. The victim’s family didn’t get to see their loved ones for the past 44 years.
JimboXYZ says
The murder he committed 45+ years ago, he was sentenced o death 8 years later (not like he was coming forward for anything). Anyone buying that at 74 that Sochor wasn’t ever, still isn’t haunted by Patricia Gifford that evening 12/31/1980-01/01/1981 ? He strangled her, doesn’t remember where he disposed of her body, yet somehow found his way back from that location as being the one that disposed of her body ? Sochor needs to come up with a realistic final wish ? He served 36-37 years, still had no dream(s) of what happened at any time in the last 45 years ? I think Sochor has been generously granted 36-37 years of life to make at least where the body was disposed of right. And the rest of us ate that incarceration & now the final chapter as an execution. Maybe DeSantis should show up drunk, drive off with Sochor’s corpse & forget where Sochor’s body is fed to the alligators of the Everglades somewhere in Broward County ?
“Sochor has confessed that when Gifford refused to have sex with him later that evening, he became angry, choked her until she died, and disposed of her body, which has never been found. He was indicted for first-degree murder and kidnapping and, after a jury trial, was found guilty of each offense, and recommended for execution by a Broward jury in 1989 by a vote of 10-2.”
Wendy says
He spent all that time in jail before the execution then that means he lived his life at least 74 and he’s been in there for 45 years why f****** bother
You already lived his life regardless it was in jail but he still lived
JimboXYZ says
Details of the night of the murder.
https://charleyproject.org/case/patricia-marie-gifford
Grim Reaper says says
Missing from the story is that Sochor prior to killing the 18 year old was in prison for abducting and raping another woman. The predator’s been breathing for 44 years too long. C U Next Tuesday Denny!
Atwp says
It would be nice for the people signing the execution warrant would be there to see the execution carried out. Am surprised and happy that more white men are executed than black men. I also wonder if the article I read was a typo, I always thought that black men were executed more than white men. If the article is true it put a little on my face.
BillC says
“Approximately 35% of those executed since 1976 have been black, even though blacks constitute only 12%
of the population. The odds of receiving a death sentence are nearly four times higher if the defendant is
black than if he or she is white.
The odds of receiving a death sentence are nearly four times higher if the defendant is
black than if he or she is white.”
— ACLU Prison Policy Initiative
DeSantisRocks says
There is a lot more data to look at. Perhaps those black offenders are far more likely to already have a lengthy history of crimes. Correlation doesn’t equal causation, and the ACLU is a ridiculous organization.
BillC says
Those are statistics, not correlations.
Atwp says
Ty.
Al says
The only problem is that this jerk will be taken out humanely. I feel he should be strangled just like his victim. All the crocodile tears for the villain and screw the victim they no longer count. If you feel this man is harmless then lock your daughter in the cell with him for 24 hours, I dare you. The defense of being drunk or high is BS, what if he were drunk and hit your families car head on would you feel for him?
Atwp says
A good invitation, why not see the execution you authorized. I read an article about who were executed the most black men or white men, to my surprise white men are executed more than black men. It maybe a typo but it sounds good. The news if true put a little smile on my face.
DeSantisRocks says
The lefties propensity for violence knows no bounds. It puts a smile on your face that more white men than black men are executed? wtf is wrong with you? No need to answer, I already know the answer.
Mike Cocchiola says
This is a tough one, especially because it involves a brutal and senseless murder. But I do believe execution- state-sponsored murder- is not the answer. Lifetime incarceration, yes; lethal injection, no. We cannot kill our way out of brutal, senseless murders.
It’s time for politicians to come together with scientific experts to seek solutions other than revenge killings.
Brian says
DeSantis should take him up on his invitation and attend the execution. Maybe he could take pizza and make it a party for everyone present in the chamber. There are about 250 people on the Florida Death Row, at an annual cost of $60,000 to $70,000 a year for each one. Why not have one a week – think of the savings for taxpayers!
DeSantisRocks says
We should bring back expedited public hangings. People need to be more aware of what the consequences will be if they take someone else’s life. Tyler Robinson, as an example, should already be in the ground.