Florida exe­cut­ed Dusty Ray Spencer on June 25, 2026, mak­ing him the old­est per­son put to death in the state since the rein­state­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1976. Mr. Spencer, 74, was the ninth per­son exe­cut­ed in Florida in 2026, fol­low­ing a record of 19 exe­cu­tions in 2025. The state has sched­uled two exe­cu­tions for July: Dennis Sochor, 74, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on July 14 for the 1981 mur­der of Patricia Gifford in Broward County; Dominick Occhicone, 80, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on July 28 for the 1986 mur­ders of his for­mer girlfriend’s par­ents in Pasco County. If Mr. Occhicone’s exe­cu­tion pro­ceeds, he will be the old­est per­son exe­cut­ed in Florida’s mod­ern his­to­ry, break­ing the record set by Mr. Spencer’s exe­cu­tion weeks earlier. 

All three men were sen­tenced to death based on non-unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tions — a prac­tice Florida abol­ished in 2016 and then re-imple­ment­ed in 2023. In January 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida’s cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing statute in Hurst v. Florida, hold­ing that the Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact nec­es­sary to impose a death sen­tence. In October 2016, on remand, the Florida Supreme Court held that unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tions were required for death sen­tences. That una­nim­i­ty require­ment was rolled back in 2023, after Gov. DeSantis called upon the leg­is­la­ture to pass a bill elim­i­nat­ing a unan­i­mous jury require­ment and replaced it with a require­ment for only eight out of 12 jurors to impose death. This change gave Florida the low­est death-penal­ty jury thresh­old on the coun­try.1 Even under this reduced thresh­old, the 7 – 5 rec­om­men­da­tions hand­ed down in Mr. Spencer’s and Mr. Occhicone’s cas­es would fall short of what is required to impose death sentences today.

Dusty Ray Spencer was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing his wife, Karen Spencer, in 1992, fol­low­ing a series of vio­lent alter­ca­tions in the weeks pre­ced­ing her mur­der. The jury rec­om­mend­ed the death penal­ty by a vote of 7 – 5. In 1994, the Florida Supreme Court over­turned Mr. Spencer’s sen­tence, remand­ing his case back to the tri­al court for resen­tenc­ing. At resen­tenc­ing, the tri­al court resen­tenced Mr. Spencer to death with­out empan­el­ing a new jury — the tri­al judge alone imposed anoth­er death sen­tence. In 2017, fol­low­ing the U.S. Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Hurst v. Florida, Florida amend­ed its laws to require unan­i­mous jury votes for death sen­tence rec­om­men­da­tions, and Mr. Spencer appealed to have his sen­tence over­turned. On November 8, 2018, the Florida Supreme Court denied Mr. Spencer’s appeal because his death sen­tence became final before 2002. 

Mr. Spencer served hon­or­ably in the U.S. Marine Corps dur­ing the Vietnam War era and par­tic­i­pat­ed in search-and-res­cue mis­sions. The sen­tenc­ing court rec­og­nized Mr. Spencer’s mil­i­tary ser­vice as mit­i­ga­tion, and mul­ti­ple review­ing courts agreed. His attor­neys also argued that his health issues, includ­ing liv­er dis­ease, posed a height­ened risk of pain and suf­fer­ing and that exe­cut­ing him at his advanced age would con­sti­tute cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. Those claims were reject­ed by both the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Before his exe­cu­tion, Mr. Spencer offered a final state­ment: ​“Sorry, sor­ry to the fam­i­ly. Into thy hands I com­mit my spir­it and my soul. I’m on my way, Lord. I’m on my way. Amen.”

Dennis Sochor, 74, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion on July 14 for the mur­der of Patricia Gifford in 1981. The jury rec­om­mend­ed death by a vote of 10 – 2, and the judge sen­tenced Mr. Sochor to death. Mr. Sochor’s con­vic­tion depend­ed heav­i­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of his broth­er, Gary. In clos­ing at tri­al, coun­sel argued: ​“The only two peo­ple who real­ly knew any­thing about this case [are] Gary Sochor and Dennis Sochor,” leav­ing the jury to choose between two con­flict­ing accounts. In 2009, Mr. Sochor filed a post­con­vic­tion motion alleg­ing that pros­e­cu­tors with­held favor­able evi­dence, argu­ing that the State failed to dis­close that Gary Sochor received immu­ni­ty from pros­e­cu­tion in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny — a fact com­mu­ni­cat­ed to Gary only one day before he testified. 

Mr. Sochor’s attor­neys argue that Florida’s cur­rent lethal injec­tion pro­to­col cre­ates a sub­stan­tial risk of severe and unnec­es­sary suf­fer­ing, point­ing to autop­sies from numer­ous recent Florida exe­cu­tions show­ing evi­dence of flash pul­monary ede­ma, the rapid accu­mu­la­tion of flu­id in the lungs that can pro­duce intense air hunger and the sen­sa­tion of drown­ing before death. 

Dominick Occhicone has been on Florida’s death row since 1987, con­vict­ed of the mur­ders of Raymond and Martha Artzner in 1986. After his penal­ty phase, where the jury found him guilty of these mur­ders, the jury made a non-unan­i­mous, 7 – 5 rec­om­men­da­tion for death. Under cur­rent Florida law, a 7 – 5 rec­om­men­da­tion would no longer be enough to impose the death penal­ty. Today’s law requires at least eight jurors to rec­om­mend death before such a sen­tence can be imposed. Like Mr. Spencer, Mr. Occhicone sought relief from his death sen­tence after Hurst. Mr. Occhicone’s relief was denied because his sen­tence became final before 2002. The sen­tenc­ing court found, as a statu­to­ry mit­i­gat­ing fac­tor, that the mur­der was com­mit­ted while Mr. Occhicone was under the influ­ence of extreme men­tal and emotional disturbance.

Advocates have called on Gov. DeSantis to stay the exe­cu­tions of both Mr. Sochor and Mr. Occhicone. 

Tags
Citation Guide
Sources

Melanie Verdecia, NEW WARRANT: Dominick Occhicone’s exe­cu­tion sched­uled 7/​28/​2026, Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty, June 28, 2026; David Fischer and Dave Collins, 74-year-old man becomes old­est inmate exe­cut­ed in mod­ern Florida his­to­ry, Associated Press, June 25, 2026; Dennis Sochor Faces Execution in Florida on July 14, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, June 23, 2026; Melanie Verdecia, NEW WARRANT: Dennis Sochor’s exe­cu­tion sched­uled 7/​14/​2026, Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty, June 10, 2026; Melanie Verdecia, NEW WARRANT: Dusty Ray Spencer’s Execution Scheduled 6/​25/​2026, Tracking Florida’s Death Penalty, May 26, 2026.

Footnotes

  1. The only oth­er state that allows for non-unan­i­mous rec­om­men­da­tions in cap­i­tal cas­es is Alabama, whose thresh­old requires at least 10 out of 12 jurors to impose death.