Sochor v. Secretary Dept. of Corrections, No. 10-14944 (11th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseThe issue on appeal before the Fourth Circuit in this case concerned whether the Supreme Court of Florida unreasonably applied clearly established federal law when it explicitly refused to consider relevant mental health evidence in its collateral review of a sentence of death. Defendant Dennis Sochor, a serial rapist, was sentenced to death after he confessed to the murder and kidnapping of an eighteen-year-old woman. Defendant applied to the Fourth Circuit for the writ of habeas corpus. He argued on appeal that the ruling of the Supreme Court of Florida that the failure of his trial counsel to present mitigating mental health evidence during the penalty phase of his trial did not prejudice him and was an unreasonable application of "Strickland v. Washington," (466 U.S. 668 (1984)). Although "Porter v. McCollum" ((Porter II),130 S. Ct. 447 (2009)) made clear that the Supreme Court of Florida unreasonably applied Strickland, the Fourth Circuit's de novo review of the record established that there was no reasonable probability that the trial court would have imposed a sentence other than death had Defendant's trial counsel not been deficient. Further, the Court ruled that "Sochor fail[ed] to offer clear and convincing evidence that the contrary findings of the Supreme Court of Florida [were] unreasonable." Accordingly, the Court affirmed the denial of Defendant's petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.