Education
He held a Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, and an Master of Philisophy from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
He held a Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, and an Master of Philisophy from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
A Toronto native, he was murdered in Tallahassee, Florida in 2014. The crime remains unsolved. Before entering teaching, he clerked for Judge Michael Daly Hawkins of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and was a white collar criminal defense attorney with Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel in Washington, District of Columbia He co-authored a 2009 book exploring the intersection between crime, punishment and family.
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, 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, Slate, and the Atlantic, among other publications.
In addition to his scholarship, he was a consultant for the defense in a federal prosecution in New Jersey involving rabbis accused of extortion by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Markel was shot at his home in Tallahassee, Florida on the morning of July 18, 2014, and died early the next day. He was talking on the phone as he pulled into his garage, and said that he saw someone in his driveway.
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 erroneously classified the call as less serious than it was. Adelson had wanted to move to south Florida with the children but Markel succeeded in obtaining a court order prohibiting her from doing southern A highly regarded and popular professor, Merkel was the subject of many tributes from the academic community.
The day after his death, a memorial service was held at the synagogue he had attended, Congregation Shomrei Torah, in Tallahassee.
Markel is buried in Pardes Shalom Cemetery in Maple, Ontario. Media reports suggested the police investigated the possibility Markel"s death was related to online criticism he received or to his legal consulting work.