The Jewish religious divorce ‘get’ and Professor Dan Markel of
Florida State University
Murder
The subject matter of murder is, in fact and in fiction, not likely to
disappear and the boundaries between actual murder and fictional murder
have become blurred in the media.1 However, the number of homicides
(murders) in the United States is over 24,000 each year and has now been
recognised as a major health problem in the United States2 and classified
as a ‘serious violent crime’ with the definition of ‘homicide’ being ‘the
wilful, non-negligent killing of one human being by another person or
group’ with ‘violent offences’ having the following characteristics3:
(i) The risk of physical harm is present, even though only homicide
leads to death.
(ii) The victim of such an act is placed in a situation in which a great
deal of anxiety is present.
(iii)
There are long-lasting consequences for the perpetrator and the
victim.
1
Malmquist, C.P. (1996) Homicide: A psychiatric perspective, Washington, D.C: American
Psychiatric Press.
2
Ibid 1.
3
Doerner, W.G., Speir, J.C. (1986) ‘The impact of medical resources upon criminally induced
lethality’, Criminology, 24: 319-330.
1
Homicide risk
It is of concern that Dan Markel was the least likely person to be violently
killed. Statistics show that murder rate in the US peaked at 10.2 murders
per every 100,000 people in 1980.4
Professor Dan Markel gunned down
The police in Tallahassee, Florida in the United States have been
investigating the killing of a criminal law professor at the Florida State
University (‘FSU’), College of Law, Professor Dan Markel, who was
41years old. He was shot on Friday morning, 25 July 2014, in his home in
Tallahassee and died fourteen hours later despite huge efforts to save his
life.5
Neighbour notified police on hearing gunshot
Police and ambulance were called by a neighbour who heard the single
gunshot and Dan Markel was taken by ambulance to the local hospital
where he was pronounced dead on Saturday, 26 July, 2014, fourteen
hours later. He was the most unlikely target for a murder, being of high
status academia, and living a dignified and normal middle-class
professional lifestyle in a quiet suburban location. The highest risk of
4
Ibid 1.
Tallahassee police say Markel was the intended target when he was shot in the head in his garage on
25 July 2014. The shooting stunned friends, colleagues and residents of his community.
5
2
homicide is for black males with a chance of dying by homicide being
one in twenty-four.6
A Prius Toyota car seen being driven away from that street
At first, the Tallahassee Police Department had released a CCTV photo of
a vehicle of interest, a Toyota Prius-type car seen driving away from near
Dan Markel’s home at the time of his murder, but they have released no
new information about this car or its driver.
Memorial service at FSU
At the time of the university memorial service held at FSU7 on Tuesday,
16, September 2014, almost two months after he was killed, police there
have yet to announce a suspect or suspects.8
Reward offered for information about this murder
Newspapers have reported that the organisation Crimestoppers is offering
a $25,000 reward for tips that lead to an arrest in the Dan Markel case.
BBCS says anonymous donors have contributed money to raise the
reward from $10,000 to $25,000. This is the third time the reward has
increased since Markel's murder.9
6
Ibid 1.
Editor, ‘Memorial Held for Slain FSU Law Professor Dan Markel’, WTXLTV, 16 September, 2014.
8
Matt Galka, ‘No answers in law professor's death two months later’, Capitol News Service, 16
September 2014.
7
3
Who might the perpetrator (s) be?
Studies reveal that 86% of homicides are committed by men with 64% of
these against other men, ie. 74% of all US homicides committed by men
involve men killing other men and in 80% of these cases, men kill nonintimate acquaintances, strangers, or victim of undetermined relationship.
When a man uses a gun to kill, it is usually to kill a stranger or nonfamily acquaintance but when a woman uses a gun to kill, the victim is
five times more likely to be a spouse, family member or intimate
acquaintance.10
Seasonal factors, time-of-day and other periodic factors
Such factors have been expertly studied to determine the incidence of
violence by calendar month to reveal December as the month for the most
homicides and Saturday evenings and early Sunday morning appear as
prime times for homicide crimes.
Of much relevance is the fact that homicides are most often caused by the
breakdown in family structure; minimal time at home; the increasing
number of meals people eat out; increased numbers of people living in
9
Sharon Ofuani, Crimestoppers executive director stated that Crime Stoppers works and they believe
that large rewards will motivate those with information about crime to come forward to help law
enforcement close cases. See Editor, ‘Crime Stoppers Increases Reward to $25,000 in Dan Markel
Murder Case’, WTXLTV, 11 September 2014.
10
Ibid 1. At page 12 is set out the framework of the stages of interaction which leads the victim to his
murder.
4
isolation; the home being increasingly the centre of social life; and 24hour shopping malls.11
Profiling the victim Dan Markel-Lively Jewish religious
developments
Biblical following in (Numbers 8: 1-12:16) became the final word in the
field of divorce between Jewish divorcing couples. In the United States
where people of Jewish religion are more respected than in most other
countries of the world apart from Israel, modern divorcing couples still
adhere to the Jewish ‘get’ or religious divorce’, be they lawyers or
paupers, so much so that an unfortunate corrupt industry has blossomed
around the unfortunate circumstances of those families ripped asunder by
the pace of modern life and other differences of seeing their lives.12
Given that the Bible is the eternal book, and especially the Old
Testament, its layers of meaning have been accumulated and consolidated
throughout the ages. Not just, another meaning taken of a verse or a
passage; not just another interpretation of some ambiguous Hebrew word
or phrase; not just another angle of vision on a Biblical theme, but for
11
Ibid 1.
Kellerman, A.L., and Mercy, J.A., (1992) ‘’Men, women and murder: gender specific differences in
rates of fatal violence and victimisation’, Journal of Trauma, 33: 1-5.
12
5
some Jews, the Biblical text has taken on a completely new extended
meaning.13
This does not replace the individual readings of verses and passages or
the prismatic approach to layers of meaning inherent in Biblical syntax
and grammar. It has been said that more than half a century ago, in a
BMH Hebrew School classroom, the late Rabbi Ernest Gray, when asked
about who Moses was, responded that it would take another Shakespeare
to draw a portrait of Moses. Yet attempts to construct partial portraits of
Biblical personalities proliferate.
The foundation of the religious ‘get’ divorce-Precious family life
Leading to the redemption of the Israelite slaves from Egypt, Pharaoh had
decreed that all new Jewish males be tossed into the river Nile and
drowned, and the biblical Miriam had admonished her father Amram for
divorcing his wife Yocheved, as per the local reasoning at the time that
were a male child to be forcibly drowned, it is futile to beget children in
those circumstances, and so many Jewish men then divorced their wives.
Miriam out of character, chastised her father that the Pharaoh had decreed
the death of new-born Jewish males but in not marrying or by divorcing
‘Biblical passages, commentaries and Midrashim are plumbed for their bits of information on
Biblical personalties, whereupon these bits of information are woven into a picture, a complete reading
of a Biblical personage’. See ‘Miriam’…..
13
6
wives already married, Jewish men were thereby preventing the birth of
both males and females. Her father Amram then regretted his divorce and
remarried his wife Yocheved. To Miriam, even extraordinary
circumstances did not justify breaking up the family unit.
This is the foundation of the importance of the Jewish religious ‘get’
divorce and for the high regard for Jewish family life. Thus, was Moses
born to Yocheved and Amram?
Therefore, Miriam was the sister of Moses, born after her father
remarried his wife. Miriam and her brother Aaron spoke against Moses
regarding his wife, the Cushite, Zipporah. Miriam criticized Moses for
separating from Zipporah for not having a normal family life. Miriam’s
profound belief was in Jewish family life. Life is about living and
learning, and about healing the past.14
Secular divorces also bring bitterness
A recent report that a Florida veteran, Mr Terry Lynn, was imprisoned for
refusing to share his VA disability benefits with his ex-wife was
significant because he and his wife were going through a civil law
divorce and the wife was requesting half is disability benefits.15 Under
Editor, ‘Newsletter’, Intermountain Jewish News, August 2014.
Editor, ‘Veteran chooses jail over giving his disability money to ex-wife’, WXLTV, 18 September
2014.
14
15
7
federal law16, the husband’s disability benefit is exempt from alimony
payments but under Florida state law the divorcing wife may be entitled
to half of this money, that is, half of the husband’s monthly Gulf War
injury benefit of $1,500 because Florida law does allow for alimony.
This is an important legal issue because there are some 1.6 million
veterans in Florida. It is also of note that in the state of Florida statistics
reveals that fewer couples are getting married.17 Single adults outnumber
their married counterparts, according to a recent Bloomberg report, which
stated that 50.2 percent of adults were identified as unmarried in August
2014.18 The number of people in the population, who are divorced,
separated or widowed, was 15.3 percent in 1976, but 19.8 percent in
August 2014.
16
Federal law protects the veteran's monthly compensation cheque from alimony and being garnished.
U.S. Title 38 states that VA benefits are exempt from taxation, claims of creditors, and other legal
processes. It makes no exception for alimony.
17
Editor, ‘For the first time, more adults are single than married in US, report shows’, WTXLTV, 17
September 2014.
18
The Report was produced for the government by economist Edward Yardeni from the Bureau of
Labour Statistics. The number of single adults has been steadily increasing since the first numbers were
gathered in 1976, when only 37.4 percent of adults were unmarried. A total of 124.6 million people, 16
years old or older, were identified as unmarried.
8