Mark Miles

Mark Miles is a fictional character at HBO drama Oz played by Mike Quill.

Character overview

Prisoner 97M573. Convicted July 10, 1997 - three counts of murder in first degree. Sentence: Death.

A racist, and apparently bigamist. Mark Miles kills both his families, but pleads insanity and is sent to a mental hospital for 10 years. He is sentenced to death after killing his second wife. On death row, Miles takes special delight in tormenting Moses Deyell and Nat Ginzburg. It is suggested that Miles may have some connection to the Aryan Brotherhood since he spouts several racist and bigoted slurs to his fellow death row convicts, and he and Vern Schillinger seem to get along well together.

Season 4

As soon he is convicted, Mark begans insulting everyone on Death Row. He gets Shirley Billinger's mirror after she is executed on request from Sister Pete, who Bellinger entrusted to her things. He buys a paintbrush and some paints and starts to paint his own picture on his cell's wall. When Ginzburg begins succumbing to AIDS symptoms, Miles can't sleep because of his cough. When Ginzburg dies, Miles starts screaming racial slurs to Deyell. Deyell punches the wall in anger, breaking his hand. Moses then starts digging a tunnel in the wall which separates his and Miles's cells.

As Miles' execution nears, Sister Pete goes to his cell and asks him how he wants to die. Frightened, Miles starts crying, which Deyell mocks. Miles finishes his painting. In the same minute, Moses finishes his tunnel and, with a punch (brought on by another one of Miles' racist insults), breaks the wall and starts strangling Miles, who dies before guard Len Lopresti could do anything.

Trivia

Miles is thought to be loosely based on real-life murderer, Paul Harrington.^{[citation needed]} Harrington killed his wife and two children in 1975 but claimed that he was mentally ill because of trauma he suffered while serving in the US Army in the Vietnam War. He was found not guilty. He, too, spent time in a psychiatric hospital instead of a prison, but, like Miles, murdered his second wife and one of his sons. The defense didn't work in the second trial, and he is now serving life without parole.