TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Court TV) – A Florida judge has denied Charlie Adelson‘s motion for resentencing.
In 2023, Leon County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Everett sentenced the once-prominent South Florida periodontist to life without the possibility of parole for the murder of his former brother-in-law, Dan Markel.
Adelson was also convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder, for which he received a maximum sentence of 30 years each, to be served consecutively. Recently, Adelson had been seeking resentencing not on the murder conviction but on the charges of conspiracy and solicitation.
When he issued his ruling, Judge Everett said that while there were errors on Adelson’s sentencing scoresheet, they had no reflection on his ultimate sentence. The judge did, however, grant Adelson’s request for a new, corrected scoresheet.
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In his order, Judge Everett wrote: “When the Court imposed its sentence, it did not refer to or mention the scoresheet at all, demonstrating the Court was not relying on the computation of the lowest permissible prison sentence.”
In some states, judges use sentencing scoresheets to determine appropriate sentences for those convicted of crimes. The scoresheets allow judges to calculate a numerical score when factoring in the severity of the offense(s), and other factors such as whether the individual has prior convictions. Scoresheets essentially help make sentencing fair and consistent across the board for similar cases.
In an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat, Adelson’s attorney, Michael Ufferman, indicated that a mistake occurred when calculating sentencing on two out of the three counts against his client.
“I believe the scoresheet error regarding the improper scoring of victim injury points warrants correction to ensure compliance with the law,” Ufferman told the Tallahassee Democrat. “As explained in the motion filed, a defendant has a fundamental right to be sentenced under a correctly calculated scoresheet.”
Ufferman disputed 120 of the 258 points on Adelson’s sentencing scoresheet in the hopes that if the tally were decreased, a resentencing might mean a shorter sentence. According to court documents filed by Ufferman earlier this month, the 120 points in dispute were incorrectly assigned “death” points to the non-capital offenses of conspiracy and solicitation. Ufferman argued that the court’s own rules dictate that injury resulting from capital offenses “must not be included upon any scoresheet prepared for non-capital offenses.”
In Adelson’s case, the crime of murder was a capital offense, but the State opted not to pursue the death penalty. Therefore, argued Ufferman, when the court checked “Life” on Adelson’s scoresheet, they should have included the actual sentence of 60 years (30 years each for conspiracy and solicitation).
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Recalculating Adelson’s score wouldn’t do much for him now, as he’s serving a separate sentence of life without parole; but should he ever be successful on appeal, Adelson could be looking at a chance at freedom.
Earlier this month, the court denied Adelson’s most recent attempt at an appeal. He was seeking a new trial on the grounds that a conflict of interest arose when his mother, Donna Adelson, hired the same attorney as him. Donna, who hired a whole new defense team, is currently awaiting trial for the same offenses as her son.
Markel’s 2014 death was a murder-for-hire orchestrated by Charlie, according to prosecutors. With the help of a go-between, Adelson arranged for hitmen to gun down Markel, who was a Florida State University law professor. At the time of his death, Markel was in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson. Wendi is Charlie’s sister and Donna’s daughter.