How old is too old to be executed? Florida’s about to break its freshly set record
A Florida man on death row is set to become the oldest inmate to be executed in state history. Dennis Sochor, 74, who has been on death row since the 80s, is set to be put to death Tuesday. The scheduled execution has resurrected the ethical arguments surrounding the death sentence, but it’s also raised the question of whether it’s right to kill someone already in the twilight years of their life.
His death will mark the 17th execution in the U.S. this year and the 10th execution in Florida alone – more than every other state combined.
Sochor is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. ET at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of killing 18-year-old Patty Gifford on Jan. 1, 1982, after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party. Sochor admitted to raping and murdering Gifford, but her body was never found.
His execution will come just weeks after another 74-year-old inmate, Dusty Ray Spencer, became the oldest person to be put to death in Florida. Sochor will be exactly one week older if Tuesday’s execution is carried out as scheduled, according to The Associated Press.
But later this month, they’ll both be surpassed by 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone, who is scheduled to die after spending nearly four decades on death row for murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents. Not only would that make him the oldest man to be executed in Florida, but also the second oldest in the country. Walter Leroy Moody Jr., 83, was put to death in Alabama in 2018 for mailing bombs that killed a federal judge and a Black civil rights attorney in 1989.
An aging death row population
Their predicament is not unique; death rows across the country are filled with elderly inmates, and more of them are being executed now than ever before.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, “only three of the 944 prisoners executed in the United States between 1977 and 2004 had been aged 65 or older,” but from January 2010 to June 2019, “forty-five prisoners aged 60 or older were executed.”
The average age of inmates executed in the U.S. has steadily risen from the 30s to the 50s over the past 50 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The recent cases have reignited concerns over whether administering capital punishment to those who are likely to die of natural causes sooner rather than later is humane.
“Is this intentional, as though to say, we’re not going to let a natural death help you escape executions?” Rev. Dustin Feddon, a Catholic priest who has ministered to Florida death row inmates since 2013, asked in an interview with AP.
Feddon said that while the church already opposes the death penalty, “To execute those that are the most frail and elderly is even more cruel and unusual.”
Leading up to his execution, Spencer asked the Florida Supreme Court “to recognize a categorical exemption from execution based on advanced age, contending his execution would otherwise constitute cruel and unusual punishment and offend evolving standards of decency.”
The court denied that request, saying, “The only age-based exemption from execution recognized by the United States Supreme Court is for individuals under the chronological age of eighteen when they committed the offense.”
It added, “No decision from the Supreme Court has read the Eighth Amendment as categorically exempting defendants of advanced age from execution, and we are not about to create one now.”
Victims’ families say it’s justice
For the families of the victims, the prolonged wait for their loved ones’ killers to be executed highlights how the U.S. lengthy appeals process, which was designed to safeguard constitutional protections and prevent wrongful executions, can be a punishment of its own.
Patty Gifford’s sister, Marilyn Gifford, said, “I’m just happy it’s ever happening in our lifetime. I wish my mother was alive to see it.”
And Frank Frandel, a former family friend who grew up alongside Sochor in Portland, Michigan, argued that just because Sochor is 74 doesn’t mean he hasn’t got plenty of life left to live. Frandel said Sochor’s father is still alive and will turn 99 this year.
“He could live another 20 years,” Frandel said. “So no, I don’t feel sorry for him being at that age.”
Round out your reading
- With more prison space than prisoners, correctional facilities are shutting down.
- ‘Game changer’: New cancer treatment turns major surgery into an outpatient procedure.
- Viewers overwhelmingly support ‘The View’s’ fight against the FCC. Will that matter?
- Why an ICE shooting in Houston isn’t leading to mass protests.
- Milwaukee detective is the latest officer charged with misusing Flock cameras.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
