Charlie Adelson Appeal Hearing: Judges Question Whether Tallahassee Jury Was Tainted | Markel Murder Update
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2026
⏱️ 15 minutes
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Summary
Three appellate judges heard oral arguments today in Charlie Adelson's bid to overturn his conviction in the murder-for-hire of Dan Markel. Adelson, currently serving life in a South Dakota prison, was not present as his attorneys argued he was denied a fair trial due to nearly a decade of pretrial publicity in Tallahassee. Defense attorney Michael Ufferman told Florida's First District Court of Appeal that 53 of 54 prospective jurors who formed an opinion believed Adelson was guilty before the trial began. He cited jurors discussing the case in violation of court orders and argued the entire panel should have been struck. The state countered that Adelson accepted the jury without objection and never filed a formal change of venue motion. Assistant Attorney General Robert Charles Lee delivered the prosecution's sharpest argument: Adelson is entitled to an impartial jury, not an impartial community. He maintained that any Florida jury would have convicted based on the evidence.
The judges pressed both sides with pointed questions but did not indicate when a ruling would come. Adelson was convicted in November 2023 for orchestrating the 2014 murder of his former brother-in-law, an FSU law professor who was shot in his garage after a custody dispute. His mother Donna Adelson, convicted in September 2025, also has an appeal pending. Both are fighting their convictions from separate prisons.
#CharlieAdelson #DanMarkel #AdelsonAppeal #TrueCrimeToday #MurderForHire #DonnaAdelson #FloridaCrime #AdelsonCase #TallahasseeMurder #MarkelCase
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. |
| 0:02.7 | Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:07.0 | Charlie Adelson got his day in appellate court. |
| 0:12.4 | He just wasn't there to see it. |
| 0:18.0 | He's sitting in a South Dakota prison about 1,500 miles away from a Tallahassee |
| 0:23.6 | courtroom where three judges spent 40 minutes deciding whether his murder conviction should stand. |
| 0:28.9 | The question on the table was pretty straightforward, even if the answer isn't, |
| 0:34.0 | did the man convicted of orchestrating Dan Markel's murder get a fair trial, |
| 0:38.3 | or was he doomed before the first witness took the stand? |
| 0:41.9 | His attorney says the jury pool was poisoned by a decade of media coverage. |
| 0:47.6 | The state says that doesn't really matter. |
| 0:52.0 | Any jury in Florida would have convicted him. And honestly, that's probably the most |
| 0:55.9 | telling thing either side has said really throughout the entire morning of proceedings when this was going on. |
| 1:03.2 | The hearing took place at 10 a.m. before the First District Court of Appeal, three judges, |
| 1:07.0 | Lori S. Roe, Thomas D. Wincor, and M. Cremley Thomas presided. |
| 1:13.5 | Each side got about 20 minutes. Charlie's appellate attorneys, Michael Offerman, and |
| 1:17.3 | Lori Niles out of Tallahassee, presented his case. The state was represented by assistant |
| 1:22.0 | attorney Gerald Robert Charles Lee and Charlie himself nowhere to be found. |
| 1:29.1 | Incarcerated, appellants don't get to attend oral arguments. |
| 1:33.2 | So he sat in a cell in South Dakota, where he was transferred after extortion threats at his Florida facility, |
| 1:41.8 | while lawyers debated whether the system that put him there was fundamentally |
| 1:46.3 | broken. So what happened in trial? Did Charlie get any traction? We're going to get into all that. |
... |
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