TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Court TV/Scripps News Tallahassee) — Less than a month after she was sentenced to life in prison for plotting the murder-for-hire of her former son-in-law, Donna Adelson has filed a notice of appeal in her case.
Donna Adelson looks towards her husband, Harvey Adelson during her sentencing for her role in the murder of Dan Markel, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025.
Adelson was the fifth person to be convicted in the murder of FSU law professor Dan Markel, who was gunned down at his home in 2014.
Adelson maintained her innocence at her sentencing hearing in October, describing Markel as “a fine and decent man” before declaring there was a lack of evidence to support her conviction.
MORE | Markel family responds to Donna Adelson’s ‘disrespectful and delusional statements’
The notice of appeal, filed on Tuesday with the First District Court of Appeals, provides notice that Adelson is appealing both the guilty verdict and her life sentence; however, the brief with her reasoning for the appeal has not yet been filed. The filing also notes Adelson intends to appeal some pretrial and evidentiary rulings.
Adelson’s husband, Harvey Adelson, joined her in decrying what he saw as a failure in justice at her sentencing, arguing to Judge Stephen Everett, “This is not justice. It is vengeance and it is wrong.”
Everett, who presided over both Adelson’s murder trial and that of her son, Charlie Adelson, who was convicted of the same charges, previously denied Adelson’s motion for a new trial.
