Daniel Eric Markel (October 9, 1972 – July 19, 2014) was a Canadian-born attorney and a law professor, who wrote various works on retribution in criminal law and sentencing, with a focus on the role of punishment in the criminal justice system. He earned a J.D. degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 2001 and after working as a law clerk to a federal judge and as an associate at a law firm, joined the faculty of

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

in 2005. Markel was killed in

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Fl ...

, in 2014, in a murder for hire motivated by child custody issues following Markel's divorce from Wendi Adelson, a clinical law professor and child advocate also employed at Florida State University at the time. Four individuals have been convicted in the case. Charlie Adelson, Wendi Adelson's brother and Markel's former brother-in-law, was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder, and sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 30 years each for the conspiracy and solicitation convictions. Sigfredo Garcia was found guilty of

first-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse ...

and

conspiracy to commit murder Conspiracy to murder is a statutory offence defined by the intent to commit murder. England and Wales The offence of conspiracy to murder was created in statutory law by section 4 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and retained as an ...

, and sentenced to life in prison. After a

mistrial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, ...

in her original trial, Katherine Magbanua was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder in a retrial and sentenced to life in prison plus two consecutive 30-year sentences. Luis Rivera pled guilty to second-degree murder, and was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Donna Adelson, Wendi Adelson's mother and Markel's former mother-in-law, was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder. Originally scheduled to start September 17, 2024, her trial is expected to begin on August 25, 2025. Neither Markel's ex-wife Wendi Adelson nor Wendi Adelson's father (and Markel's former father-in-law) Harvey Adelson have been charged, but both have been named by prosecutors as "conspirators" in the killing.

Early life and education

Daniel Eric MarkelObituaries
''Emmanuel College Magazine'', Vol. XCVII (2014-2015) p. 208. was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and raised in Toronto in a religious Jewish family.John Schwartz
Police Seek Clues in Fatal Shooting of Widely Known Criminal Law Professor in Florida: Dan Markel's Death Reverberates Among Legal Scholars
''The New York Times'' (July 21, 2014). He studied politics and philosophy as a Harvard undergraduate, graduating ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

''. While on a Dorot Fellowship in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, Markel completed graduate studies at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

and earned a master's degree in political theory from

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

, before receiving his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2001.Gary Fineout & Joe Reedy
Mystery Remains After Arrest in Killing of Florida Professor
ABC News (May 26, 2016).

Legal career

Before entering teaching, Markel served as law clerk to Judge Michael Daly Hawkins of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...

and was an associate with the law firm Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, practicing white-collar criminal defense.Criminal Law Scholar Dan Markel Joins Faculty
(press release), Florida State University College of Law (May 1, 2005). His work at the firm included representing a group of law professors in an

amicus brief An amicus curiae (; ) is an individual or organization that is not a party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Whether an ''amic ...

in a criminal case before the Ninth Circuit. Markel joined the faculty of the Florida State University College of Law in 2005; he was tenured in 2010. Markel held the post of D'Alemberte Professor of Law at the FSU College of Law.

Work

Markel co-authored a book exploring the intersection between crime, punishment and family, ''Privilege or Punish: Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Family Ties'' (2009). Markel was a co-founder of a blog for law professors, PrawfsBlawg. His law review articles included an argument for the abolition of the death penalty published in the '' Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review'', a critique of the use of shaming as punishment published in the '' Vanderbilt Law Review'', and a paper on punitive damages published in the '' University of Pennsylvania Law Review''. Also interested in

sports law Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a par ...

, he and his co-authors proposed a method of giving fans an opportunity to participate in the management of sports teams. He also wrote opinion pieces for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'', and the ''

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

'', among other publications. In addition to his scholarship, he was a consultant for the defense in a federal prosecution in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

involving rabbis accused of extortion by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

Murder

Markel was shot at his home in Tallahassee, Florida, shortly before 11 a.m. on July 18, 2014, and died early the next day. The Tallahassee Police Department announced that Markel was the "intended victim" and termed his death a murder. On August 1, 2014, the Associated Press reported that emergency medical response was delayed because a

dispatcher A dispatcher is a Communication, communications worker who receives and transmits information to coordinate operations of other personnel and vehicles carrying out a service. Emergency organizations including police, police departments, fire de ...

erroneously classified the call as less serious than it was. A highly regarded and popular professor, Markel was the subject of many tributes from the academic community. The day after his death, a memorial service was held at the

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

he had attended, Congregation Shomrei Torah, in Tallahassee. Markel was buried in Pardes Shalom Cemetery in Maple, Ontario. A $25,000 Crime Stoppers reward was initially offered. A separate, independently funded $100,000 award was offered in July 2015. At that time, the one-year anniversary of the murder, the Tallahassee Police Department called a press conference and showed photographs of a silver pine mica

Toyota Prius The is a Compact car, compact/small family car, small family liftback (supermini/subcompact sedan (car), sedan until 2003) produced by Toyota. The Prius has a Hybrid vehicle drivetrain, hybrid drivetrain, combined with an internal combustion ...

, asking the public for help in locating the vehicle. The police also released unredacted police reports from the crime scene in February 2016, but these contained no new information regarding the crime, only the names of police officers who visited the crime scene.

2016 developments

On May 26, 2016, a suspect, Sigfredo Garcia, 34, of

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

, was arrested for first-degree murder. Tallahassee police would not release further details, but told reporters that the killing was being investigated as a murder for hire.Karl Etters
Two indicted in Markel slaying
''Tallahassee Democrat'' (June 17, 2016). A few days later, a judge in Leon County court ordered the probable cause

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or ''deposition (law), deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by la ...

behind the arrest unsealed. The affidavit revealed investigators' belief that Garcia and Luis Rivera, 33, had traveled from the Miami area in a rented Toyota Prius, staying in motels the nights of July 16 and 17, 2014, to commit the crime. Evidence included a cellphone, banking and SunPass electronic toll collection records; security camera footage from buildings and city buses along the streets Markel and the alleged killers had driven, and the testimony of an unnamed informant along with a nearby witness. The morning of the killing, they had trailed Markel as he ran errands and went to the gym, until they could shoot him at his home. The affidavit further outlined investigators' theory of the case: that Markel's death was a contract killing, in which Charlie Adelson (the brother of Markel's ex-wife Wendi Adelson) and Donna Adelson (Charlie and Wendi's mother) had used Katherine Magbanua as an intermediary to hire Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera for the killing. According to the affidavit, the motive was the desire of the family of Wendi Adelson to allow her to relocate to the Miami area with the children. Katherine Magbanua, who had mothered Garcia's two children, was alleged to have been the link between the Adelson family and Garcia and Rivera. Investigators alleged that neither Rivera nor Garcia knew Markel but that Charlie Adelson (Wendi Adelson's brother) was in a "personal relationship" with Katherine Magbanua, that Magbanua received a large amount of money from the Adelsons following the killing, that Magbanua was the first call Garcia dialed after Markel was murdered and that Charlie and Donna Adelson disliked Markel. The affidavit further noted that Wendi Adelson had been granted 50-50 custody when the couple's acrimonious divorce had been finalized in 2013, when Markel had won an order prohibiting her from moving to Miami with the children. In 2014, Markel filed a motion that would have prohibited his mother-in-law from being alone and unsupervised with the children due to alleged disparaging remarks about their father. On June 17, 2016, a grand jury in Leon County indicted Garcia and Rivera on charges of first-degree murder in connection with Markel's killing. At the time, Rivera was already in jail for a conviction on federal charges of

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...

conspiracy arising from his leadership of the North Miami group of the Latin Kings gang. The state filed documentation with the court, including detailed information on Rivera and Garcia's first trip to Tallahassee on June 4–6, 2014 and an exhaustive review of cellular phone and GPS records placing them in the vicinity of Markel on both trips. The state also issued an expanded probable cause affidavit which included photographs and maps related to the murder. The media released videos of the Toyota Prius stalking Markel throughout Tallahassee on July 18, 2014. Sigfredo Garcia was pictured in a Toyota Prius at an ATM in Pembroke Pines, wearing a white long-sleeved dress shirt.Tallahassee Police Department
Sigfredo Garcia Probable Cause Attachment A
''Court Document'' (June 24, 2016). Media reports using the released videos showed that immediately after the murder, video from a Tallahassee bus showed the Prius going North on Thomasville Road, with an individual in the passenger side changing into a long-sleeved white shirt. On September 16, 2016, ABC News aired "In-Laws and Outlaws", on a '' 20/20'' episode on the investigation into the murder. On October 1, 2016, police arrested Katherine Magbanua; she too was charged with murder. On October 4, 2016, Luis Rivera pled guilty to the charge of murder as part of a

plea bargain A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include a ...

in which he was sentenced to 19 years in prison, which would run concurrently with another sentence he was already serving. In his

confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of people – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information that ...

, Rivera claimed that Sigfredo Garcia had recruited Rivera to take part in the killing of Markel and that Katherine Magbanua was "the woman in the middle doing everything". Rivera also claimed that he did not know the names of the people who had hired Garcia and Magbanua but that the reason for the killing was "because the lady wants her two kids back. She wants full custody of the kids."Karl Etters
Rivera: 'We were coming up here to kill somebody'
''Tallahassee Democrat'' (October 10, 2016). The Adelsons denied any involvement.

2019 developments

The trials for Katherine Magbanua and Sigfredo Garcia were combined and took place in October 2019. In the trial, prosecutors claimed that Charlie Adelson had arranged to pay Magbanua, Rivera, and Garcia $100,000 to murder Markel so that Wendi Adelson could get full custody of Markel's and Wendi Adelson's two sons. At trial, Magbanua denied involvement but claimed that the case presented by the prosecutors led her to believe Adelson was "involved" in the murders. For his part, Garcia claimed that Rivera had carried out the killing alone. On October 11, a jury found Sigfredo Garcia guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the 2014 killing of Dan Markel. On October 15, the court sentenced Garcia to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charge, plus 30 years for conspiracy. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on Katherine Magbanua, with two sources with knowledge of the vote confirming it was 10-2 for conviction. Magbanua remained in jail, pending retrial.

2022 developments

Charlie Adelson was arrested on April 21, 2022, and was charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder. Wendi's TV comments during her interrogation immediately after the murder can be reconciled with Donna's TV comment in code two years later on a

wiretap Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

. After several delays due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Katherine Magbanua's retrial began on May 16, 2022. On May 27, 2022, a jury found Magbanua guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder, 30 years for the conspiracy, and an additional 30 years for the solicitation. On November 16, 2022, a request was made for Katherine Magbanua to be handed over to the Leon County Sheriff so she could be transported to the Leon County State Attorney's Office for a proffer in relation to Charlie Adelson's trial scheduled to take place on October 23, 2023. Adelson and Magbanua were dating at the time of the murder.

2023 developments

Charlie Adelson's trial began on Thursday, October 26, 2023, in a Leon County courtroom the week before his 47th birthday. On Monday, November 6, 2023, Adelson was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and solicitation of first-degree murder. On Tuesday, December 12, 2023, he was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder plus an additional 30 years each for the conspiracy and solicitation convictions. On the evening of November 13, 2023, Donna Adelson, Markel's former mother-in-law, was arrested at the

Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary international airport serving Miami and its Miami metropolitan area, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Florida. It hosts over 1, ...

on a warrant from Leon County, apparently trying to flee on a one-way ticket to

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, a country with no

extradition In an extradition, one Jurisdiction (area), jurisdiction delivers a person Suspect, accused or Conviction, convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforc ...

treaty with the U.S. She is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder. Her trial was set to begin September 17, 2024, but proceedings were delayed when Donna Adelson's attorney withdrew his representation of her on the first day of jury selection. Her trial is scheduled to begin on August 25, 2025.

Markel Act

Following the 2016 arrests, Wendi Adelson cut off contact between Markel's parents and their grandsons. She also took the step of changing her sons' last names from Markel to Adelson, claiming it was for their safety. Florida's grandparent visitation laws are among the most restrictive in the nation, leaving the Markels with no way to even petition a court for a ruling on whether they can be granted contact with their grandsons. The Florida Legislature considered a bill in the 2020 legislative session, SB 1886 sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes, that would create an additional set of conditions in which grandparents would be granted standing to access courts. Wendi Adelson's attorney denounced the bill as an "absolute outrage." In 2022, the legislation, informally known as the Markel Act, passed both chambers of the Florida legislature and was signed into law by Governor

Ron DeSantis Ronald Dion DeSantis (; born September 14, 1978) is an American politician, attorney, and former United States Navy, naval officer serving as the 46th List of governors of Florida, governor of Florida since 2019. A member of the Republican Pa ...

Personal life

Markel married Wendi Jill Adelson in February 2006. They had two sons, one born in 2009 and one in 2010. The couple separated in 2012. Their divorce became final in 2013.

References

External links

*
Dan Markel's Publications on Social Science Research Network

Dan Markel's Publications and CV

Dan Markel & Howard Wasserman, What If Fans Could Have Paid Jeremy Lin to Stay in New York?, ''The Atlantic'', July 23, 2012

* ttps://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/opinion/01polsky.html?_r=1 Gregg Polsky & Dan Markel, Damages Control, ''The New York Times'', June 30, 2010* (Dan Markel speaks o
Retributive Justice and the Demands of Democratic Citizenship
{{DEFAULTSORT:Markel, Dan 1972 births 2014 deaths Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Canadian Jews Canadian lawyers Canadian legal scholars Florida State University faculty Harvard Law School alumni Writers from Montreal Writers from Toronto Murder-for-hire cases People murdered in Florida Deaths by firearm in Florida July 2014 crimes in the United States 2014 in Florida 2010s crimes in Florida Tallahassee, Florida 2014 murders in the United States