Priest challenges DeSantis to attend Dennis Sochor execution

A Catholic priest has challenged Gov. Ron DeSantis to attend the next scheduled execution in Florida, that of Dennis Sochor, convicted of strangling 18-year-old Patricia Gifford in 1981.

"Governor, if you're going to kill a man in my name and in the name of every Floridian, will you have the courage to look him in the eye while you do it?" theologian and activist Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood asked in an email release. Hood issued his challenge in a Zoom press conference on July 10.

Hood, a co-founder of the West Palm Beach-based nonprofit Execution Intervention Project, said he has personally attended 12 executions in the U.S., including that of Dusty Ray Spencer. Florida put Spencer to death on June 25 for the brutal 1992 murder of his wife in front of her teenage son.

"And in twelve executions, do you know who I have never once seen standing in that room? The governor who signed the warrant," Hood said, calling it a "moral obscenity."

Other anti-death penalty voices such as Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops have called on DeSantis, who was raised Catholic, to commute Sochor's sentence to life imprisonment.

Barring a successful appeal, Sochor is scheduled to die of lethal injection on Tuesday, July 14.

Florida governor issues death warrants

Florida is unusual in that the governor has complete control over which death row inmate is named to die next. In most other U.S. states, that power rests with trial court judges, state supreme courts, or other executives.

"If Governor DeSantis believes what he signs, he should be able to stand six feet from the gurney, look Dennis in the eye, and watch his order carried out to the end," Hood said.

Hood, who said he was Sochor's spiritual advisor, said that Sochor invited DeSantis to be there for his execution. "And knowing what waits for him there, he has still turned to the one man responsible and said, in effect: 'Come. Stand with me. Watch what you've decided. I won't look away, and I'm asking you not to either.'"

DeSantis defends accelerated execution schedule

DeSantis has stepped up the pace on executions in Florida. Before 2025, he had only issued six, but he issued 19 death warrants last year and 12 so far this year.

In a November press conference on cancer funding, DeSantis called the death penalty "an appropriate punishment for the worst offenders," and explained that the reason he didn't issue many death warrants in previous years was largely due to the focus on COVID-19.

"It wasn't intentional; it was just there was a lot of other stuff," he said, adding that he heard from a lot of victims' families about how long they'd been waiting for closure. "If you think about it, some of these crimes were committed in the 80s, and they wait, and there's appeal, and this and that, and it's like, you know, there's a saying, 'Justice delayed is justice denied.'

"I felt that I owed it to them to make sure that this ran very smoothly and promptly."

C. A. Bridges is a journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida's service journalism Connect team. You can get all of Florida's best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Priest challenges DeSantis to attend Dennis Sochor execution

Reporting by C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida / Tallahassee Democrat

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This story was originally published July 10, 2026 at 4:52 PM.