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Fund set up for slain Florida State criminal law prof

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Donations are pouring in for the children of a well-known criminal law professor at Florida State University College of Law who was murdered on July 18th.

Dan Markel, who taught criminal law and was a co-founder of ProfsBlawg, a blog for academic law professors, was killed by a gunshot to the head while at his home in an affluent neighborhood in Tallahassee.

Tamara Demko, who met Markel when he was a student at Harvard Law School, set up a memorial fund to raise money for his two sons. It had raised $48,634 in its first three days.

“My heart is just shattered,” Demko told AP. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do without him in my life. He’s been a part of it for so long.”

Markel recently went through a contentious divorce with Wendi Adelson, who also worked at Florida State’s law school as the director of the medical-legal partnership at the Public Interest Law Center. The couple were still trying to resolve custody and financial matters related to the divorce.

A spokesman for the Tallahassee police department said there are no suspects, and could not provide details on why the victim was targeted.

However, police announced that Markel was most likely the attacker’s intended victim and there were no signs of forced entry, in an effort to calm the frightened community.

“The investigation has provided no indication that this case is connected to a burglary or robbery,” the police said. “There is no evidence this is a random act.”

A week after Markel’s death, police released images of a silver Toyota Prius seen around the neighborhood at the time of the shooting.

Markel was a well-known scholar in his field, with much of his work focused on retribution in criminal law and sentencing. He was part of a group of professors who collaborated on a blog, PrawfsBlawg, which covered a variety of law topics.

On Saturday, his colleagues on the blog put together a post on his death.

“His boundless energy was at the center of this community; it made it run, it gave it life,” the post read. “We are stunned and bereaved by his loss, and our thoughts go to his two little boys, who were precious to him, and to his family. Many, many people loved him and are grieving today.”

 Markel, who was 41 when he died, joined Florida State in 2005 and received tenure in 2010. He married Adelson in 2006, when she was 25 and a third-year law student at University if Miami. Adelson filed for divorce in 2012. 

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