Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Tuesday, July fourteenth, and it was
Speaker 1: just a couple of weeks ago that Florida executed the
Speaker 1: oldest inmate in that state's history. Tonight they're going to
Speaker 1: execute somebody even older. And with that, welcome to this
Speaker 1: episode of Amy and TJ. At seventy four year old
Speaker 1: on death row being executed. People have feelings about it,
Speaker 1: but well, we know how Florida feels.
Speaker 2: Yes, because this is the second seventy four year old
Speaker 2: in a matter of weeks that Florida is set to execute.
Speaker 2: This This gentleman's name and I hate to even say
Speaker 2: gentlemen because when you hear what he's done, that probably
Speaker 2: wasn't the right term to use. Seventy four year old
Speaker 2: Dennis Soker is said to die tonight at six pm
Speaker 2: Eastern Time by lethal injection. And yes, he will officially
Speaker 2: be the oldest inmate ever to be executed in Florida
Speaker 2: because he will be exactly one week older than Dusty
Speaker 2: Ray Spencer, who was executed last month at the age
Speaker 2: of seventy four.
Speaker 1: The chances is that intentional do they go through and
Speaker 1: look for the oldest as that's clear the books here
Speaker 1: that it just seems like a bizarre coincidence that back
Speaker 1: to back oldest in history.
Speaker 2: And then add to that, later this month, in just
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks, they're going to beat their own
Speaker 2: record once again with an eighty year old death row
Speaker 2: inmate scheduled to be executed. So yes, three in a row,
Speaker 2: each one setting a record for being the oldest inmate
Speaker 2: ever executed in the state of Florida.
Speaker 1: And people are having that debate what is cruel and unusual?
Speaker 1: Is it cruel and unusual because of the age, because
Speaker 1: of the health problems, because of the skin, the difficulty
Speaker 1: in finding a vain, because of all these things rodes
Speaker 1: people have the question, do you execute an elderly person?
Speaker 1: Is that automatically cruel and unusual?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: But the argument on the other side is, yeah, where
Speaker 1: he's still being punished for the crime he committed. Correct,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what. It doesn't lessen the impact of
Speaker 1: what he did, and it doesn't lessen the punishment just
Speaker 1: because he's aged by forty years.
Speaker 2: And some would say that it's been cruel and unusual
Speaker 2: to the family of their victims to have to wait
Speaker 2: forty plus years, and in this case, I believe it's
Speaker 2: forty four years for justice for their loved ones murder.
Speaker 2: And in this particular case with Dennis Soaker, his victim
Speaker 2: was an eighteen year old girl, her name was Patty Gifford,
Speaker 2: who was celebrating New Year's Eve on nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 2: So in the early hours of nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 1: So am I crazy? But why does this seem like
Speaker 1: we've had so many murders on New Year's Eve and
Speaker 1: New Year's Day.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's true, it's true. Maybe it's the drinking, maybe
Speaker 2: it's just the energy of that evening. But you are correct.
Speaker 3: We have absolutely.
Speaker 2: Covered several recently, some many of them called like old murders.
Speaker 2: We're talking years and years and years ago. But New
Speaker 2: Year's Eve has been a theme for sure. But when
Speaker 2: you hear what Soacer did to this young woman, I
Speaker 2: don't know, it definitely will impact how you feel about
Speaker 2: him dying tonight at the age of seventy four, and
Speaker 2: will also let you know what the family of Patty
Speaker 2: Gifford has to say about it, And they are very
Speaker 2: clear in how they feel about tonight's execution. But this, again, yes,
Speaker 2: happened in the early morning hours of nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 2: But this young woman was celebrating with her friend at
Speaker 2: a Fort Lauderdale bar at the Banana Boat. She was
Speaker 2: with another girlfriend. Her girlfriend wasn't feeling well, went back
Speaker 2: into her car to go to sleep and so to
Speaker 2: rest her to sleep it off. And so Patty was
Speaker 2: alone and had been in the same bar with yes
Speaker 2: then twenty nine year old Dennis Soker, who was there
Speaker 2: with his brother. And there's an eerie photo if you
Speaker 2: can look this up. There was an eerie photo of
Speaker 2: him behind her. She's almost taking a selfie back in
Speaker 2: the day in nineteen eighty one with her camera. She's smiling,
Speaker 2: she's got New Year's Eve gear on. She looks adorable.
Speaker 2: He is literally in the background like staring at her.
Speaker 2: And that photo, which was developed after her death, ultimately
Speaker 2: led them to find her killer. It took them five years,
Speaker 2: almost five years to find him and arrest him. But
Speaker 2: that photo was part. It was a key part of
Speaker 2: the evidence.
Speaker 1: It's so creepy and do I have right show it
Speaker 1: to me. It's creepy now would have been creepy in
Speaker 1: the moment if none of this had happened. It was
Speaker 1: a weird shot of him that didn't even look actually
Speaker 1: he didn't look menacing.
Speaker 2: But knowing what no, no now And at the time,
Speaker 2: when he's twenty nine years old in this bar flirting
Speaker 2: with this young woman, he was already a convicted serial rapist.
Speaker 2: It's actually we'll get into this too. It's actually appalling
Speaker 2: and disgusting that he was out, that he was free
Speaker 2: a year two years later after this heinous crime, that
Speaker 2: he was already just walking the streets, able to do
Speaker 2: what he does or do what he had been doing.
Speaker 2: But yees. She left with him to go grab some food,
Speaker 2: to get some breakfast, and so that is when he
Speaker 2: pulled off to the side of the road. He claims
Speaker 2: he got angry when she wouldn't have sex with him,
Speaker 2: so he raped her, strangled her, and dumped her body.
Speaker 2: But here's the deal. They never found her body, and
Speaker 2: there have been some accounts that he's refused to tell them.
Speaker 2: There have been other accounts that he was too drunk
Speaker 2: to remember. But at the end of the day, that's
Speaker 2: a huge part of this story because of the lack
Speaker 2: of closure for the family, and it's something he even
Speaker 2: used in his appeals later to say, hey, we don't
Speaker 2: even know if she's dead. Nogay didn't and hasn't worked.
Speaker 2: But ultimately he was arrested in Georgia in nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 2: so almost five years later, for a dui and that
Speaker 2: is when he was ultimately charged, tried, and convicted of
Speaker 2: first degree murder and kidnapping. Now he confessed on tape.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting is he still tried to fight to live.
Speaker 2: We always talk about this among death row inmates. Despite
Speaker 2: what they did, they always at the end want to live.
Speaker 2: But at his sentencing he told the judge, I have
Speaker 2: contemplated suicide. I felt that if I could hurt somebody,
Speaker 2: I don't deserve to live myself. So he told the judge,
Speaker 2: I deserve to die.
Speaker 1: This is not one where we're going to This happened
Speaker 1: one other in Florida where they didn't go through their appeals.
Speaker 1: It didn't fight it. I don't know worlds, We don't
Speaker 1: know much about him, but there's more to how it
Speaker 1: seems he's preparing robes for the end and he's not
Speaker 1: preparing to fight in the end like so many others do.
Speaker 2: That's right, So yes, the Florida Supreme Court denied his
Speaker 2: final appeal on July eighth. And look, I just also
Speaker 2: wanted to point out the violent history of this man,
Speaker 2: just to give a full picture of Dennis Soker. But
Speaker 2: as I mentioned, I referenced he was convicted of kidnapping, beating,
Speaker 2: and raping a nineteen year old woman in nineteen eighty Again,
Speaker 2: this crime happened on New Year's Eve of nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 2: Going into nineteen eighty two, he also confessed to raping
Speaker 2: another woman in Michigan, and all of that was taken
Speaker 2: into account when he was sentenced to death at his hearing.
Speaker 2: And that makes a lot of sense. But as you
Speaker 2: kind of we're referencing there, his spiritual advisor has been
Speaker 2: speaking out and talking about his conversations with Soker in
Speaker 2: the past few weeks.
Speaker 1: And look, Grobes, we I don't know, have you seen
Speaker 1: anywhere where he has he's in touch with family and
Speaker 1: visitors of his own family, right, Okay, no, not at all.
Speaker 1: There's something about that. In the end, I know, we
Speaker 1: I don't know. We all should have mercy for people.
Speaker 3: Robes.
Speaker 1: That the heinousness of some of this that's described, I mean,
Speaker 1: it makes you sick in the stomach. But where does
Speaker 1: mercy come in Robes, we're supposed to be better than
Speaker 1: he is, so we're not supposed to wish pain or
Speaker 1: harm or death even or discomfort. But or this, this
Speaker 1: something is just the solemnity of just death right, no
Speaker 1: matter if it's gone through a ceremony like this and
Speaker 1: doing it or going through the horror of the way
Speaker 1: he killed this girl. Just something about it. Robes is
Speaker 1: just that nobody just doesn't feel good on these days.
Speaker 1: But to hear all the moments that is where some
Speaker 1: of these guys like him his only I guess the
Speaker 1: only person that seems to care about him is a
Speaker 1: spiritual advisor, like the only person on earth he is
Speaker 1: getting any comfort from.
Speaker 3: That's tough.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: At his sentencing, I believe it was his siblings who
Speaker 2: did speak up about his violence upbringing and how horrific
Speaker 2: their father was to him, beating him, abusing him, and
Speaker 2: so he had a life of violence, Not that it
Speaker 2: excuses what he then chose to do with his own
Speaker 2: life towards other women. But his spiritual adviser told he
Speaker 2: gave a couple interviews and he said he has been
Speaker 2: encouraging Soker to think about where her body is before
Speaker 2: he dies, to encourage him to be able to maybe
Speaker 2: give that information to the family that they so desperately
Speaker 2: want before he dies. He said that he believes Socer
Speaker 2: is genuinely remorseful, and he said he discussed writing a
Speaker 2: letter to the Gifford family. He's encouraged him to do
Speaker 2: that to give something to the family because they've been
Speaker 2: just anguished for decades about where their loved one is.
Speaker 2: And he said he also has been discussing with him
Speaker 2: what his last words will be. So that'll be interesting
Speaker 2: tonight because it sounds as if there's been real thought
Speaker 2: given to what his final words.
Speaker 3: Will be used to that.
Speaker 1: I've not heard that before.
Speaker 3: Usually they're off the cuff.
Speaker 1: And they're short and sweet and not a whole lot
Speaker 1: of thoughts seemingly put into them. He got my attention
Speaker 1: on this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we will be waiting to hear about that
Speaker 2: when we get the details of tonight's scheduled execution again
Speaker 2: at six pm. But when we come back, we are
Speaker 2: going to tell you what Patty Gifford's family has to
Speaker 2: say about tonight and how they feel about Dennis Soker.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ
Speaker 2: or the oldest man ever in the state of Florida
Speaker 2: is set to be executed Tonight's seventy four year old
Speaker 2: Dennis Soaker, convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering an eighteen
Speaker 2: year old girl her name was Patty Gifford, on the
Speaker 2: early morning hours of New Year's Day on nineteen in
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two. So this is forty four years that
Speaker 2: Patty Gifford's family has had to wait to see this day.
Speaker 2: And they say they will all be there tonight at
Speaker 2: this execution.
Speaker 1: Did I I'm johnas when was his to think they've
Speaker 1: waited this long?
Speaker 2: He was convicted or sentenced to death in nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 2: I mean it took a long time for justice, even
Speaker 2: on that level.
Speaker 3: But my god, forty years.
Speaker 2: Forty years on death row, forty years on death row.
Speaker 1: If you got a problem with the death penalty, and
Speaker 1: this would be my biggest problem with it takes too
Speaker 1: damn long, right, if you want to keep it and
Speaker 1: want to be legal, it takes to them long. I
Speaker 1: might say, I'm not in an avoc I'm not pushing
Speaker 1: for I think we got too many problems with it.
Speaker 1: If you want to get rid of the death penalty.
Speaker 1: I would support that, but if you're going to keep it,
Speaker 1: what fan force it forty four years? Yes, it's the
Speaker 1: death of their loved one. We got to wait for
Speaker 1: what you all told us is justice.
Speaker 2: Obviously members of her family have died. Her sister has
Speaker 2: been very outspoken, and she also tells this tale about
Speaker 2: this is and he plans to be here tonight. But
Speaker 2: Gifferd's sisters said that her high school, her sister's high
Speaker 2: school sweetheart. I mean they were madly in love. They
Speaker 2: were going to get married, and you think back in
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty one, that was that was the track for most.
Speaker 3: Folks, right.
Speaker 2: He never got over her death. I got chills, and
Speaker 2: he never married anyone. He is single to this day
Speaker 2: because he said his heart is still with Patty. That
Speaker 2: just gives you a sense of the impact of this awful,
Speaker 2: horrific night that left so many people broke. And she
Speaker 2: says her family can never celebrate on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 2: I mean, think about that, everyone's celebrating, everyone's partying. That's
Speaker 2: the night that someone horrifically, horrifically raise and murdered your sister,
Speaker 2: your loved one. That she said, New Year's eve is
Speaker 2: just an awful and will always remain an awful night
Speaker 2: for all of them. I just to give that level
Speaker 2: of pain that never goes away. That's what this family
Speaker 2: has been living with. But her sister said this, I
Speaker 2: expect to sleep like a baby tomorrow night for the
Speaker 2: first time in decades. She gave this interview yesterday.
Speaker 1: Good car and yep, rhaps that's punt. That's cruel and
Speaker 1: on usual. Forty four years an entire lifetime. And again
Speaker 1: this happens in Florida. They have the look the appeals
Speaker 1: process they have to go through all this, and they
Speaker 1: have one there in Florida that takes.
Speaker 3: A long long time. Fine the ropes.
Speaker 1: The Santis is trying to clear these roles, and some
Speaker 1: of them are now finally through their appeals process, moving
Speaker 1: up to the front of the front of the list romes.
Speaker 1: They have a bunch of people over eighty on death
Speaker 1: row in Florida.
Speaker 3: We might see a lot of this this year.
Speaker 2: I believe we will, because that is what DeSantis has
Speaker 2: said he is going to do. And for many of
Speaker 2: these victims family, it's what they've been waiting for. Some
Speaker 2: of them haven't lived to see the day and I
Speaker 2: think that's sad because if you're going to have the punishment,
Speaker 2: and again this is not about us being pro death penalty,
Speaker 2: in fact, quite the opposite. But if you're going to
Speaker 2: have this be the punishment for those families who are
Speaker 2: expecting that closure, to not get it and to have
Speaker 2: to wait for so long seems torturous to those families.
Speaker 2: And I just this stuck with me. Her quote and
Speaker 2: what they want more than anything, Yes, they want to
Speaker 2: see him die tonight, but more than anything, they want
Speaker 2: to know where Patty Gifford is. And when he dies,
Speaker 2: it absolutely seals the faith for them that they will
Speaker 2: never know.
Speaker 3: Any chance he gives that to him tonight.
Speaker 2: It's possible, or even in a letter that he may
Speaker 2: have been writing, maybe tonight that is perhaps the hope.
Speaker 2: Because her sister said this, it's unfinished. Where is she?
Speaker 2: What did he do to her? Where did he leave her?
Speaker 2: It just matters. It matters so much to us because yes,
Speaker 2: you can hear I guess what happened in court, they
Speaker 2: can speculate how she died. But if you don't have
Speaker 2: the body, and you don't have the forensic evidence, and
Speaker 2: you don't know where her final resting place is there
Speaker 2: will always be questions, and so that is one of
Speaker 2: the sad things for the family that if he goes
Speaker 2: to his death without giving them that information, it will
Speaker 2: never be known.
Speaker 1: He's putting a plan together. Can you imagine how dramatic
Speaker 1: would that be, Ropes? If he used his last breath
Speaker 1: to give the family that, it.
Speaker 2: Would be remarkable. It would be a gift actually at
Speaker 2: that moment, and that's pretty much the only gift he
Speaker 2: can give them. I don't think I'm sorry is going
Speaker 2: to be enough at this point, because he's still holding
Speaker 2: on to information that they desperately want to know. So
Speaker 2: we shall see what happens in that execution chamber tonight
Speaker 2: at six pm Eastern time in the state of Florida,
Speaker 2: making history once again and without everyone. We always appreciate
Speaker 2: you listening to us. I maybe roboch alongside TJ.
Speaker 3: Holmes. We will talk to you soon.