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Donna Adelson’s movement for brand spanking new trial cites…
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Donna Adelson’s movement for brand spanking new trial cites jurors’ TikTok and podcast actions
By Debra Cassens Weiss
September 18, 2025, 9:54 am CDT
Donna Adelson, who was lately convicted within the 2014 homicide for rent of Florida State College legislation professor Dan Markel, has filed a movement for brand spanking new trial. (Picture by Alicia Devine/The Tallahassee Democrat by way of the Related Press)
Alleging potential misconduct, Donna Adelson’s attorneys wish to interview two jurors following her Sept. 4 conviction within the homicide of a Florida legislation professor who was her former son-in-law.
In a brand new trial movement filed Sept. 15, the attorneys say Juror No. 7 went viral on TikTok following the trial and revealed she additionally posted to the social media web site throughout the trial to announce she had been chosen as a juror. Jurors had been warned in preliminary directions that they may not submit concerning the case on social media or in any other case talk concerning the trial whereas it was underway, based on the movement.
Moreover, Juror No. 7, the jury foreperson, had speculated about new costs within the case after the decision, calling Adelson the “matriarch mastermind” within the homicide of Dan Markel, a professor on the Florida State College Faculty of Legislation. Prosecutors stated Adelson helped plan the homicide, in order that her daughter Wendi Adelson—Markel’s ex-wife—might transfer from Tallahassee, Florida, to South Florida together with her and Markel’s two youngsters.
Donna Adelson’s attorneys additionally wish to interview Juror No. 5, who appeared on a podcast after the decision. The movement says the juror revealed he thought of the defendant’s reactions to testimony throughout trial, though she had been warned to not specific any emotion. The juror later acknowledged he “clearly” didn’t take into account her reactions, however the admission that he thought of them by any means is regarding as a result of they aren’t proof, the movement says.
The Tallahassee Democrat, WCTV and Courtroom TV are among the many publications that coated the movement, which cited a number of causes for a brand new trial.
One floor for a brand new trial is that the burden of the proof doesn’t help the decision, the movement says. Prosecutors claimed that Donna Adelson agreed to a plan to homicide Markel that was carried out by her son Charlie Adelson, two hitmen and the girl who employed the killers. However there isn’t any proof that Donna Adelson dedicated any act or uttered any phrases in furtherance of the plot earlier than the homicide, the movement says.
Charlie Adelson beforehand testified that he didn’t inform his mom he paid the killers till Sept. 17, 2014, about two months after the July 18 homicide, the movement says. “No proof was offered that Mrs. Adelson was conscious of something aside from Mr. Markel had been killed” previous to Sept. 17, the doc says.
Even when Donna Adelson delivered cash to her son’s home after the homicide, it doesn’t help a conviction as a principal to the homicide itself, the movement says. Additionally unpersuasive, the movement continues, is proof that she signed payroll checks after the homicide to the girl who employed the hitmen. At worst, this proof exhibits culpability as an adjunct after the very fact, the movement asserts.
“The place is the proof Mrs. Adelson agreed, conspired, mixed or confederated with anybody else that Markel be killed? There’s none,” the movement concludes.
Donna Adelson is represented by Joshua D. Zelman and Jackie Fulford of Tallahassee, Florida.
State Lawyer Jack Campbell advised the Tallahassee Democrat that nothing within the protection attorneys’ movement entitles Adelson to a brand new trial. “We’re going to proceed to battle their motions for a brand new trial and all their defenses till the tip of time,” Campbell stated.
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