Dan Markel case advances in court, as expansion of Markel Act advances in Legislature

Donna Adelson appeared Tuesday afternoon before Judge Stephen Everett in case management in advance of her scheduled June 2025 trial for the murder of her former son-in-law, FSU law professor Dan Markel.

Just one block away, a new bill inspired by his tragic story is again making its way through the Florida Legislature.

The timing of these two events is bittersweet.

The Markel case unfolds like a Shakespearean tragedy. Two innocent children lost their father in a cold-blooded murder carried out by hitmen hired by members of their mother’s family. The motive bears a terrible irony: their mother, Wendi Adelson, and their maternal grandparents desperately wanted her and the children to relocate to South Florida, despite a rigid court ruling that the boys must remain with Markel in Tallahassee. Within days of his murder, Wendi executed precisely what she and her mother had long wanted – she moved them into Donna’s Miami Beach condo. She spent considerable time with her brother, Charlie Adelson. For the next ten years, these two children, now teenagers, were raised by the very people law enforcement says orchestrated their father’s murder.

Today, Donna awaits trial; Charlie was convicted of first-degree murder in 2023, and Wendi has been named as a co-conspirator.

For most of this painful decade, Markel’s grieving parents were denied all contact with their grandchildren. Wendi severed ties between them when authorities named her family as implicated in the murder and only reinstated limited contact six years later — just hours after the Florida Senate passed the Markel Act in 2023. That bill intended to expand the conditions in which grandparents can petition courts for visitation with grandchildren.

But while remarkable in various details, the basic facts of the Markel case are not isolated.

Grandparent-grandchild relationships are often severed in many different tragic scenarios. Family disputes, legal technicalities, and adversarial custody battles frequently leave children estranged from loving, supportive relatives.

Senate Bill 124 builds upon the Markel Act, expanding legal pathways for grandparents seeking visitation rights under extraordinary circumstances. Specifically, SB 124 applies to families where grandparents have served as primary caregivers for grandchildren, such as when a parent is incarcerated, incapacitated, or abandoned the child. Under current Florida law, a returning parent can unilaterally sever these bonds, removing children from the stability, love, and care they had relied upon. Worse, grandparents have no legal recourse to petition the court for visitation.

“Grandparents and their grandchildren provide each other with so much love and support, and that meaningful bond can become even more important to maintain in the face of unthinkable tragedy. This legislation will expand grandparents’ access to the courts so that the courts may consider if visitation is in the best interest of the overall well-being of the vulnerable children in these difficult situations,” said Sen. Danny Burgess, the bill’s sponsor. “It is my hope that this will provide an opportunity for families who have already lost so much to remain in contact with their loved ones so they may continue to nurture these important relationships.”

Research has consistently demonstrated the importance of extended family relationships in childhood development. The bill underscores the importance of maintaining these connections when it is in the child’s best interest. The bill doesn’t change the conditions courts would ultimately use to decide whether grandparent visitation is in a child’s best interest; it simply allows grandparents to petition their case.

“For families like the Markels, this bill represents more than just another legal reform—it is a step toward healing, justice, and ensuring that no family endures unnecessary suffering due to legal barriers,” said Jared Ross, a Markel family friend and co-director of the grassroots organization Justice for Dan, Inc.

Indeed, for Markel’s mother, Ruth, the process of advocating for the Markel Act became a way to transform grief into action.

“In times of crisis, children deserve the love and stability that extended family can provide, and grandparents offer nurturing, safety, belonging, and community,” Ruth Markel said. “Florida is reinforcing the belief that these family connections matter. This bill will strengthen the lives of children with courage, hope, and renewal. We are deeply grateful to Sen. Burgess for his vision and advocacy.”