Elderly Death Row Inmates Set for Florida Executions

Florida is set to carry out executions of three prisoners scheduled to die by the end of the month, underscoring how the death row population has aged in the United States.

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The state last week executed Dusty Ray Spencer, 74, becoming Florida’s oldest prisoner put to death in modern times. Two more men, both in their late 70s and 80, are next in line, with their dates set closely together.

Elderly prisoners scheduled for death in Florida

On June 25, Spencer was executed after being convicted of fatally stabbing his wife in 1992. The US Supreme Court rejected his appeal, which argued that liver disease would make him especially vulnerable to severe pain during lethal injection.

Florida’s next scheduled execution is for Dennis Sochor, who was convicted of killing Patricia Gifford, 18, hours after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party in 1982. Family members have said they plan to attend. Sochor is 79, and his attorneys had argued against execution based on his age and health, leaving him nearing his 80th birthday.

Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, is scheduled to die on July 28. He was sentenced in the murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents and has spent nearly four decades on Florida’s death row. If executed, he would be the second-oldest person known to be put to death in the US, behind Walter Moody Jr., who was 83 when he was executed in Alabama in 2018.

Florida has three inmates older than Occhicone on its death row.

Questions raised as appeals and sentencing run long

The coming executions are reviving debate over whether capital punishment can be carried out humanely when inmates are elderly and medically frail, and about whether long appeals processes, intended to protect constitutional rights and guard against wrongful executions, also contribute to delays.

Rev. Dustin Feddon, a Catholic priest who has ministered to Florida death row inmates since 2013, said the issue raises the question of whether the system is effectively waiting out a natural death. He added that executing those who are the most frail and elderly would be especially harsh.

Marilyn Gifford, whose sister was killed by Sochor, said she does not view the age factor as a reason to stop the process. She told reporters she is “happy it’s happening” during her lifetime.

Governor controls execution dates in Florida

It is not clear why Florida scheduled three executions in close succession. Legal advocates say the state’s system gives the governor broad authority over timing.

Maria DeLiberato, legal director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Florida’s governor largely determines when executions occur, while in many other states the courts play a bigger role in setting schedules.

Picture courtesy of Miami Herald

About half of Florida’s 242 death row inmates have exhausted their appeals and could receive death warrants at any time. The family of Michael Sheridan spent about a year calling and writing to Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to request that he sign a death warrant before Sheridan’s killer was executed earlier this year. DeSantis’ office did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

DeSantis oversaw a record 19 executions in 2025, more than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The state has carried out nine executions so far this year.

In a statement last year, DeSantis said his goal is to deliver justice for victims’ families who waited for decades, arguing that delays deny justice.

Age alone is not a bar under court precedent

The average age of inmates executed in the US has risen from the 30s to the 50s over the past half-century, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In many cases, decades on death row can lead inmates to develop medical conditions that may complicate attempts to carry out lethal injections.

Occhicone’s attorneys said he has age-related ailments, including kidney and prostate problems, and requires assistance getting in and out of the shower.

Under Supreme Court precedent, people cannot be executed for crimes committed before age 18. But court officials and attorneys say advanced age alone does not provide a basis to stop an execution. Gerod Hooper, a lawyer with Florida’s Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, said a legal challenge would have to show that the inmate lacks execution capacity or that specific medical conditions would make the injection process unconstitutional because of undue pain.

Similar issues have arisen in other states. In cases involving inmates with dementia in Utah and Alabama, execution was avoided and the prisoners later died of apparent natural causes. In Idaho, an inmate received at least one stay connected to cancer and other health problems, though state officials continued to seek the death penalty.

Frank Frandel, who grew up near Sochor in Portland, Michigan, said he opposes leniency based on age, noting Sochor’s father is expected to turn 99 this year and arguing that Sochor could live for many years.

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14 July 2026