Deaths on February 21

Robert O. Marshall, American businessman (b. 1939)

Robert Oakley Marshall (December 16, 1939 – February 21, 2015) was an American businessman who in 1984 was charged with (and later convicted of) the contract killing of his wife Maria.

The case attracted the attention of true crime author Joe McGinniss, whose bestselling book on the Marshall case, Blind Faith, was published in 1989. The book was adapted into an Emmy-nominated 1990 TV miniseries of the same name starring Robert Urich and Joanna Kerns.

In 2002 Marshall wrote the book Tunnel Vision: Trial & Error, in which he challenged the conclusions McGinniss drew in Blind Faith. While pointing out flaws in the judicial process he believed failed him, Marshall also alleged that his trial was contaminated by police misconduct and compromised testimony and evidence.

Originally sentenced to the death penalty, in 2006 Marshall was resentenced to life in prison, with eligibility for parole in 2014. With a March 2015 parole hearing pending, Marshall died in South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, New Jersey on February 21, 2015.